Tobiano Fire Department members posing with a new used truck in 2021 (Image credit: TNRD/File Photo).

By Victor Kaisar

Fire Referendum

Residents in Tobiano and Cherry Creek to vote on new fire protection referendum this summer

Feb 24, 2025 | 7:01 AM

KAMLOOPS — Residents in Tobiano and Cherry Creek will be going to a referendum later this year to vote on a proposal for a new fire protection service area that will cover both communities west of Kamloops.

They will be also asked to approve $3 million in borrowing to fund the construction of a new fire station at the corner of Buckhorn Road and Gardi Road, and the purchase of a fire engine and a water tender that would service a total of 648 properties.

“The proposal is to establish a new fire protection service that covers both of those communities,” TNRD General Manager of Operations Jamie Vieira told CFJC Today, noting that while Tobiano currently has fire protection, it does not have a fire station.

“They’ll be approving a new service to be established and approving a maximum tax rate for operating that service as well as the cost of borrowing to fund the capital. At this point, our estimated tax rate is $1.14 per $1,000 of assessment.”

He said that proposed tax rate is in line with others across the TNRD, which in 2023 ranged from approximately $0.55 per $1,000 of assessment to $1.50 per $1,000 of assessment.

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Image Credit: TNRD

The new fire department is expected to cost about $400,000 to operate each year, up from the current $325,000 to operate the existing Tobiano Fire Department. The increase is due to increased maintenance costs connected to the new hall and apparatus as well as a $25,000 contingency “future unanticipated costs.”

More details about referendum being worked on

Vieira says the referendum question is still being worked on with more details expected to come next month. He also said the earliest that the referendum will be held is June 21, and if its successful, residents will have fire protection coverage starting January 1 next year.

“For Cherry Creek residents, its a fairly straightforward decision. Currently, they’re paying $0 in taxation towards fire protection service and they have zero fire protection service,” Vieira said. “From a Tobiano point of view, they’re not getting any less service by including Cherry Creek. I would argue they’re getting more service at a lower cost because there is a bigger area to share those costs.”

The current Tobiano fire protection area and the proposed expansion area in Cherry Creek. (Image Credit: TNRD)

Previous referendum cancelled in 2022

Plans to expand the Tobiano fire protection area to include Cherry Creek in 2022 were scuttled by the province, which forced to TNRD to cancel its previous referendum in October of that year.

“We brought a proposal to the [Cherry Creek] community to tag on to the existing [Tobiano] service area but the province did not approve the structure of the public assent process,” Vieira said. “Also, we had not yet secured land, so we didn’t want to go forward with a referendum for a fire hall in a location where we didn’t know what the costs to purchase the land would be.”

He said it took “a big longer than anticipated” to rectify those issues to get to a point where the board was asked to approve another referendum.

“We’re happy to now to come to the board with a secure location and an approved structure to move forward with the process, which is an entire new service area covering all of Tobiano and Cherry Creek,” Vieira said.

With the board approval in hand, Vieira said the TNRD will be sending residents more information about its plans in the near future.

“We will be developing information on our website, we will be doing mailouts of information, we’ll be hosting community meetings,” he said. “We want to make sure that residents are making an informed decision.”

In the event that the referendum fails, Vieira said the TNRD will continue with its efforts to build a new fire hall to service the existing Tobiano fire protection area. The existing fire department is operated out of space leased from the golf course.

“We’d be going through a separate process with Tobiano residents only asking them to approve borrowing to construct a new fire hall because we still don’t have funding to build a new fire hall there,” Vieira said.