Image Credit: Adam Donnelly / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

REVIEWING 2021

Kamloops’ mayor looks back on a year filled with emergency responses, healthcare challenges, and social issues

Dec 22, 2021 | 4:21 PM

KAMLOOPS — Throughout the course of 2021, Kamloops has been ground-zero for many big events – fires, floods, residential school findings, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Looking back, Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian says the past year was nothing short of eventful. Kamloops wound up as a non-official hub for emergency response, and Christian says its position in the region should be considered for future response efforts.

“I think we do as Kamloops always does, we rise to the occasion and we’re providing those services the best we can,” Christian says. “I think with more support from the province of British Columbia, we can even do a better job for the entire region.”

Kamloops is also one of several cities with ongoing problems related to mental health and addictions, social housing implementation, and healthcare. But the mayor says those are provincial responsibilities that cannot be solved with the kind of resources municipalities have.

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“We’re spending more money on our community services officers, bylaws, our fire department, and certainly our police department. So those are the backstop for really what is unfulfilled obligations to street affected populations by the provincial government,” he says.

Healthcare has been under increased strain over the past two years, and the hospital in Kamloops in particular has seen more than its share of struggles.

During the pandemic, Royal Inland Hospital has been hit with staffing challenges, outbreaks, and more. A new tower is opening next year that needs to be staffed and equipped, and with all the challenges the Interior Health Authority has faced this year, Christian says he would like to see the health authority model shifted.

“I think the Interior Health authority – which I’m most familiar with – is too big,” he says.
“I think that there are distinct differences between the Thompson-Cariboo area where we are the Okanagan and the Kootenays, and in my sense those would be best operated at a sub-regional level to meet the needs of the cities and the citizens in those particular areas.”

And amid all the flood and fire disasters, and pandemic events, the city still has its regular business to attend to. Mayor Christian and council will have their hands full when budget talks resume in 2022.

“This is going to be probably the most challenging budget that I’ve seen in the ten years that I’ve been at city hall. And I think it’s arriving at a time when people are least able to afford a big bump in taxes,” he says.

One civic operations bright spot Christian notes is how many projects the city was still able to finish on time and on budget this year. Including upgrades at the Canada Games Pool, the sewer lines along Tranquille Road, the paving of the McArthur Island ring road, and various grant programs that successfully launched – such as the organics collection pilot.

Finishing on the lighter side, Christian adds that he’s among the Kamloops residents who have been watching the Blazers hockey games with increasing excitement and is looking forward to seeing how far the Blazers will go during Western Hockey League playoffs.

To hear more about how the City of Kamloops fared in 2021, tune into our Year in Review with the Mayor on Tuesday, December 28 at 5:30 p.m.