Photo Credit: Mel Rothenburger

By Mel Rothenburger

Armchair Mayor

ROTHENBURGER: Fifty years ago, a brand new City of Kamloops was forged

May 6, 2023 | 6:51 AM

— FIFTY YEARS AGO, Greater Kamloops was in trouble, unable to get its act together. If you think it has problems now, you should have been around back then.

The only answer was to start over. This month marks a half century since the provincial government completed a mission to do just that. I was there.

The problem was growth. The place was booming, here, there and everywhere — up the hillsides of Aberdeen, on the flatlands of Brocklehurst, up the North Thompson, east through Valleyview and all the way to Dallas.

Farmland was turning into housing and commercial development. There seemed little order to it. Municipalities were springing up in all corners. Brocklehurst, Valleyview and Dufferin were already incorporated. Westsyde was having a robust discussion about it.

Kamloops and North Kamloops, of course, had already been joined a few years earlier.

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The whole place was a hodgepodge in need of a plan. Each municipality had to provide its own fire protection, utilities, street maintenance, sewers and recreation facilities — an economically unviable situation. Attempts were made to co-ordinate development through a regional committee but it struggled to find agreement. Each community enjoyed its autonomy despite the challenges.

In September 1972, Dave Barrett led the NDP into power and the new government acted quickly. Without warning, it announced just before Christmas that year that a broad area around Kamloops, including all the municipalities and several unincorporated areas, plus part of the Kamloops Indian Reserve, would be amalgamated into one big city.

Included would be Kamloops, Brocklehurst, Dufferin, Valleyview, Westsyde, Rayleigh, Barnhartvale, Dallas, Knutsford and the industrial subdivision on Band lands. (When the Band protested, the latter was soon removed.)

What would be the largest city in the province, geographically, would extend 10 miles west, 15 miles east and 20 miles north. It would all become official on May 1, 1973.

At the Kamloops News Advertiser, we scrambled to get details and reaction. I pondered an appropriate headline. I wanted something big and short, and came up with UNITY DECREED! in huge letters. You’d think a major war had just ended; in some ways, one had just begun.

Kamloops lawmakers hailed the decision but others did not.

In Dufferin, Mayor Roy Partridge was unavailable for comment but Ald. Hector Ellis said he was in “absolute shock,” though he added, “I’m never surprised what a socialist would do.” Others on the council blasted the government for not consulting.

Valleyview Mayor Fred Chapman said there should have been a vote. He accused Kamloops council of pushing for amalgamation to beef up its borrowing power, which he described as “almost shot.” He worried about the impact on taxes.

Brocklehurst was guarded, with Mayor Al Thompson saying he needed more information, while some of his councillors were tentatively accepting of the move.

At Kamloops city hall, opinions were favourable. Mayor Gordon Nicol said it was the only alternative. “It’s a shame the area is so splintered this had to be forced on use even though amalgamation is the best course,” he said.

On the evening of Dec. 21, the day of the announcement, MLA Gerry Anderson and I sat down to talk about it. He said he’d recommended amalgamation, including not holding a vote on it, to Municipal Affairs Minister Jim Lorimer. A plebiscite would have allowed too much time for “sabotage,” he believed.

“Emotions would play too big a part in it. We’re running out of time.”

In an editorial the next day, I called it “gutsy” and a great Christmas present.

A special advisory committee was established to deal with the details of how to merge services, what would happen to employees of the various municipalities, and harmonization of bylaws.

On May 1, 1973, the municipalities of Brocklehurst, Dufferin and Valleyview were dissolved and the expanded City of Kamloops was incorporated. An interim council consisting of a mayor and 12 aldermen was appointed until an election could be held.

Initially, the council was elected in a ward system. Gordon Nicol became the last mayor of the old Kamloops and Al Thompson, the young school teacher who had headed up the council of Brocklehurst, became the first mayor of the new Kamloops.

In those early days of the new city, communities within its boundaries were taxed at differing levels in recognition of the different services available to each.

As painful as it was, amalgamation was better than the alternative. As the years passed, boundaries were adjusted, the ward system was discarded along with differentiated taxation, old rivalries waned even though the communities that had been forcibly united retained much of their individualism, and people came to think of themselves as citizens of this complicated place called Kamloops.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.