ASK Wellness has some concerns about the incoming mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

STREET ISSUES

Some social agencies in Kamloops concerned about new mayor, know city can’t do it alone

Oct 19, 2022 | 3:29 PM

KAMLOOPS — Mayor-elect Reid Hamer-Jackson has promised to clean up the city, reduce the amount of crime on the street, by helping people get into recovery.

“You might need harm-reduction for a bit, but you’ve got to wean people off of things,” said Hamer-Jackson. “How can you get on the air and say ‘We’re saving lives, we’re saving lives.’ How do you keep saying that when since 2019 we’re on board to triple the overdose deaths in Kamloops.”

Hamer-Jackson and many of the residents who voted for him want to make agencies like ASK Wellness accountable.

ASK is concerned about him coming as mayor and what his regime might mean for its operation.

Question of the Week

Has the downturn in North American stock markets had an effect on your retirement investments?

11h ago

1000 Ways to Heal

1000 Ways to Heal: Understanding truth before reconciliation

16h ago

Looped In

LOOPED IN WITH NIKKI OMEN: April 7, 2025

17h ago

“I’m concerned because we primarily enjoyed longstanding and important parternships with the city, and these past years I have seen a lot of increased collaboration,” noted ASK Wellness social worker Jeremy Cain. “We’ve been more engrained in the city than we ever have been in the past few years, so the last thing in the world that we all want is for our momentum and what we’re doing in community to go backwards.”

Interior Community Services says if you get rid of an agency like ASK Wellness, the homelessness issue and other problems in the city would only worsen.

ICS provides crisis intervention services as well as subsidized housing for the vulnerable in Kamloops and feels Hamer-Jackson’s philosophy goes against what the non-profit is all about.

“It would be counter to what we are trying to in meeting people where they’re at,” said ICS operating officer Valerie Janz. “We really try to work to keep people’s dignity intact. These are people’s mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters. We work with them.”

Janz also feels Hamer-Jackson and those who voted for him are in for a shock on what he can and cannot do in office.

“People who just voted, who are really mad, who voted for what Reid has presented don’t understand that the city…It’s naive to think the city can solve this problem on their own. I think that would be my major takeaway,” said Janz. “You need the province, you need the federal government, you’ve got different ministries focusing on different issues like mental health and addictions. You need the health authority.”

Meanwhile, The Mustard Seed Kamloops says it has a good working relationship with Hamer-Jackson, especially given some of its focus on recovery.

“When we have our conversations, he’s a very compassionate person. He’s really concerned about the people on our street and the fact they’re still on drugs,” said executive director of The Mustard Seed Kamloops Kelly Thomson. “His goal, and I share it, is if we could have a space some place — I’m not going to say where — but his concept of having a place that’s out of the city a little bit, wherever that is — it needs to be close enough for services to get people to come — a place where people can get out and walk around and get into nature somewhere is a big help.”

Janz says the community needs to come together, as the non-profits try to solve some of the city’s issues.

“There’s a lot of blame on the non-profit sector to clean up the streets or clean up these issues. We can’t do it alone either,” she noted.

Alfred Achoba from the Kamloops branch of the Kamloops Mental Health Association was not available for comment.