Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Victor Kaisar

Legislature in Session

Rookie Kamloops MLA Stamer speaks on priorities as B.C. Legislature resumes sitting

Feb 18, 2025 | 6:00 AM

KAMLOOPS — It’s been four months since the B.C. provincial election and the rookie Kamloops-North Thompson MLA says he’s raring to go as the B.C. Legislature gets back into session Tuesday (Feb. 18) with the Speech from the Throne.

Ward Stamer says he’s looking forward to the challenges of representing a vast riding that includes a number of different communities and First Nations.

Stamer, who will serve as the B.C. Conservative’s Forest Critic, says that sector is in a dire situation.

“I don’t believe I’ve seen it as bad as it is, and really we don’t need an additional 25 per cent or even a threat of tariffs,” he told CFJC Today. “We need to be able to make sure that we have certainty of supply. We need to make sure that we have adequate cost structures on our side of the border so we can continue to work, and we have to be able to sell those products to our neighbours to the south of us without tariffs.

“Without it, we’re probably going to have more mills closing, we’ll have towns looking at closing and we can’t have that.”

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Stamer also says the budget, which is scheduled to be tabled by Finance Minster Brenda Bailey on March 4, will be top of mind for the Official Opposition.

“There are going to be significant reductions coming down the pipe probably in the ways of services,” Stamer said. “Our revenues are going to be way down. Then there is going to be the threat of the tariffs.

“We were having mills close before there were tariffs and now there’s even more threat of everything that we do. So we’re all going to have to work together and see if we can work our way through this.”

Stamer, who has been spending time in “MLA school” over the past few months to learn the ways of the B.C. Legislature, also hopes to raise issues about safety on the Yellowhead Highway, north of Kamloops, having advocated for improvements during his time as the mayor of Barriere.

“We’re still having crashes on our highway,” Stamer said. “I talked to [Transportation] Minister [Mike] Farnworth in the hall last week about dash cams. We have got to be able to have those mechanisms in place to make these truck drivers more responsible.”

Stamer also plans to raise the issue of 52 Ridge Restaurant and Pub alongside Elenore Sturko, the BC Conservative Critic for the Solicitor General and Public Safety. The District of Clearwater has called on the province to enforce its liquor laws as the establishment continues to serve liquor without a license.

“That has some serious ramifications in that situation and we’re trying to do everything that we possibly can to get them to follow the rules and follow the legislation,” Stamer said.

The B.C. Legislature is scheduled to be in session until May 29, with the exception of a couple weeks in mid-March and the weeks of Easter Sunday and the May Long Weekend.