City Council (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

RCMP DETACHMENT

Hamer-Jackson gets no support in effort to backtrack new RCMP detachment project; no debate on AAP vs referendum

Feb 25, 2025 | 4:24 PM

KAMLOOPS — A new $150 million-Kamloops RCMP headquarters moved one step closer to reality on Tuesday afternoon (Feb. 25), as council approved a motion to have staff draft a borrowing bylaw to fund the project.

The plan is to build a new RCMP detachment on the current Battle Street lot, set to be home to the Kamloops Mounties for the next 30-plus years. The location, despite being approved by a prior council decision, still feels wrong for the mayor.

“Before we knock down, or agree to knock down a building or asset that we could probably sell and look at different locations… how do we do that?” asked Reid Hamer-Jackson.

The reason the old building must be knocked down to make way for a new detachment is because building code changes would makes renovation of the 30-year old building not feasible.

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“If there was a motion from council to stop this project where we are at and start again somewhere else, find land, buy land, do a new design, go through a new process with the RCMP to determine what would be needed, where we would need to do it, how we would accommodate everything that we have worked on the last year and a half to do — certainly we could stop this project. But council would have to direct me to stop. We don’t own land anywhere else,” said CAO Byron McCorkell.

Sticking with the current location was a council resolution more than a year ago after staff presented several options.

“Once the decision is made, it is the decision of council (which) was to go with this option,” explained Bepple, stating the mayor would have been present for that decision. “And I appreciate that at this point you don’t agree with it, but council had the option of many other choices and this was the best decision to make.”

Hamer-Jackson was unable to find support around the horseshoe to stop the project and backtrack to a new location study.

“We could do something different, maybe a little quicker,” began Hamer-Jackson.

“Your worship, we do have a motion on the table so we can’t bring forward other motions,” interjected Katie Neustaeter, before Hamer-Jackson called the vote.

While council has asked staff to prepare the borrowing bylaw, there has been no conversation yet on whether it will look for public assent through a full referendum or the alternative approval process (AAP).

Last week, a BC Supreme Court ruled against a challenge to the city’s last AAP, which resulted in approval to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars for a performing arts centre and arena multiplex.