File photo (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

BC Highway Patrol

‘Concrete information and assurances’; Mayor of Barriere seeking clarity on potential BC Highway Patrol move

Nov 21, 2023 | 5:30 PM

BARRIERE B.C. — There is concern rising north of Kamloops in communities along Highway 5 about the possibility of BC Highway Patrol (BCHP) moving to a central hub in Kamloops.

Currently, BCHP Officers are stationed in Clearwater and help patrol the dangerous stretch of road between Kamloops and Blue River. While he hasn’t gotten official word from the Mounties, Barriere Mayor Ward Stamer is concerned about a plan to centralize and how that could lead to more strain on the small detachment in his community.

“The Barriere detachment has four members, at any given time there is only one or two members around and on duty.

“They have a big enough area, all the way over to Adams Lake, over to Little Fort, half way to 100-Mile, it’s a huge area for them to cover,” said Stamer. “And we are all concerned if we don’t have the same highway patrol detachment in Clearwater a lot of that extra work is going to fall back on our first responders, our volunteer firefighters that are doing highway response and what is going to happen to them?”

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With a number of crashes on the stretch of road in recent memory, and many commuters and truckers traversing the road daily to get to Kamloops or into the interior, the work of BCHP and CVSE (Commercial Vehicle Safety Enforcement) are crucial to the local communities.

After speaking with his detachment commander, Stamer is planning to reach out to the province to ensure the move does not come to term.

“I brought it to his attention, and his reply was that he hasn’t heard anything about it officially. Of course they wouldn’t want that to happen if it did come to fruition because obviously it is going to drain resources that he has. We are going to be reaching out to the solicitor general to see if we can get some concrete information and assurances from minister Farnsworth that this isn’t happening,” added Stamer.

Ed. note: This story has been updated with BCHP comment here.