File photo (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

HEAT RESPONSE

Kamloops’ heat response moving away from central hub locations, placing more emphasis on community

May 14, 2025 | 4:38 PM

KAMLOOPS — With summer approaching, the City of Kamloops is outlining its heat response plan. The city activates its heat alert protocol when Environment Canada issues a heat warning for the city. Heat warnings are in place when daytime highs are above 35 degrees for two consecutive days, with the overnight low in between failing to dip below 18 degrees.

In years past, the City of Kamloops would open up the Sandman Centre and McArthur Island as cooling centres on hot summer days. That central location model, however, has proven to be less than optimal.

“They were underutilized… with approximately 17 daily visitors when they were activated. They were also found to be an ineffective life saving strategy. Instead as last year, we will be offering free public skating, free public swimming and free seniors programming throughout the community,” said Ty Helgason, Emergency Preparedness Manager.

The move to more community-based options will see the cooling options easier to access and cost $30,000 less. However, unlike a single central location, they will not be reimbursed by the province.

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“We will continue to implore the province to reimburse these costs, so that we can save [taxpayers] money, we can save ourselves impact and we can get a better result for our residents, as well. This is just one of those illogical things caught up in policy because it’s a new way of thinking,” said Councillor Katie Neustaeter.

In addition to free swimming and skating, the city is putting up five new misting stations across Kamloops.

“These will be installed at locations that are currently being determined with a team of staff. The considerations for these locations are areas that were mapped as high heat vulnerability in our extreme heat mapping of 2024, that are also high foot traffic areas,” said Helgason.

While misting stations or free swimming may help some, Councillor Nancy Bepple questioned the services in place for seniors, harkening back to the 2021 heat dome that claimed 16 lives in the city.

“The neighbour health checks, getting that information out to the neighbourhood associations as to who they need to watch for and what to watch for in terms of heat distress and what to do if they think they see it,” said Helgason. “The goal is always continuous improvement but I think that each year since 2021 our response has gotten better —specifically, for that population.”

While the emergency response team moves forward with cooling initiatives, the city is also continuing with its new year-round watering restrictions that came into effect last year. No current drought information is available from the province at this point of the season.