File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)
Tranquille on the Lake

Tranquille on the Lake developer blasts province for roadblocks, red tape

Apr 18, 2024 | 3:24 PM

KAMLOOPS — The developer behind a long-delayed proposal to revitalize Tranquille on the Lake is blasting the provincial government as the reason for the delays.

In a news release issued Thursday (Apr. 18), The Ignition Group says the province has “systematically stymied” progress on the project with its “prolonged start and stop processes, and repeatedly moving goal lines, all hindered by unclear procedures and the absence of defined timeframes or a willingness by the NDP government to ignore those timelines that do exist.”

Ignition says its proposal would add 2,000 housing units to the Kamloops-area housing stock, as well as recreation spaces and a new park on the north shore of Kamloops Lake. Build-out is touted to offer 7,400 person-years of employment. An economic consulting firm has estimated the project would add in excess of $1.1 billion to B.C.’s gross domestic product (GDP).

In 2021, Project Manager Tim McLeod told CFJC Today the development would pump $5.4 million in property tax revenue into City of Kamloops coffers annually.

Image Credit: The Ignition Group

Tranquille on the Lake has sat largely dormant since the mid 1980s, when the former Tranquille Mental Health Facility and Farm was closed. In 2012, council of the day approved a neighbourhood plan for the area west of Kamloops Airport.

“To date, Ignition has invested millions in the due diligence and legal process and what has turned out to be a never-ending approval process,” said McLeod in the news release.

In its release, Ignition is unclear which ministries are holding up the project, though in 2022, the Agricultural Land Commission denied Ignition’s application to exclude approximately 51 hectares from the Agricultural Land Reserve in order to build housing.