(Image Credit: CFJC News/Sydney Chisholm)

By Sydney Chisholm

Community- to-community

Kamloops strengthening bond with T’kemlups

Apr 14, 2023 | 5:08 PM

KAMLOOPS – While Kamloops council and mayor struggle to work together, the city and T’kemlups are building their relationship stronger.

“Mayor Reid (Hamer-Jackson) and I had a quick little sidebar there and said, ‘You know what? We are gonna continue building, continue that momentum and continue to make our respective communities proud,’” Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir told CFJC News.

Staffers and council members from both the band and the city discussed their working relationships and explored how to improve on current services at their Community-to-Community Forum Friday (April 14).

Kamloops Fire Chief Ken Uzeloc says these forums are important to ensure everyone’s on the same page – in case tragedy strikes.

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“It’s all about relationships and when it comes to emergency services, you want to make sure you’re having those discussions before the emergency happens – not after,” Uzeloc said.

The mayor of Kamloops took their first formal gathering as a learning opportunity and hopes to continue learning and growing the city’s relationship with the band.

“It’s great to learn a lot of new stuff and what’s going on, you know, because there’s a lot of things I don’t know and I’m sure a lot of our councillors don’t know,” said Hamer-Jackson. “Looks like we got a lot of good work going on between T’kemlups and Kamloops and our communities are working together already. I think there’s a lot more we can do.”

The next formal Community-to-Community forum is slated to take place in October, but Casimir and Hamer-Jackson said the two entities meet regularly in a less formal capacity to maintain a strong bond.