File Photo (Image Credit: Contributed / Okke J Koedooder)

By James Peters

Red Bridge Replacement

Bill 15 could help speed up Red Bridge replacement: Kamloops MLA

Jun 10, 2025 | 3:10 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops-Centre MLA Peter Milobar says if there is a silver lining to the government’s legislation allowing it to fast-track infrastructure projects, it may be the construction of a replacement for the Red Bridge.

The span between downtown Kamloops and the Mount Paul Industrial Park on the Tk’emlups reserve was destroyed by fire last September. Both the City of Kamloops and Tk’emlups te Secwepemc are in favour of replacing the bridge as soon as possible.

Last month, the NDP government passed Bill 15, which gives cabinet extraordinary powers to cut red tape on projects deemed to be in the provincial interest.

Speaking to Kamloops council Tuesday (June 10), Milobar said replacing the Red Bridge fits the bill.

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“If they’re good to their word about Bill 15, we should see the Red Bridge accelerated, frankly,” said Milobar. “That’s what [the government] said. It’s projects like that that are supposed to be moving — especially one that has Indigenous support. Tk’emlups is fully on board with it.”

Kamloops councillors told Milobar they have not been updated as to the progress of a decision on a replacement project. Milobar, who serves as the finance critic in the opposition Conservative benches, said he would take the issue to Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth.

He added the province does not need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak.

“It doesn’t, frankly, have to be overly complicated. If we all agree it needs to be a lane in each direction, pick the west or the east side to have your walking and bike lane on it and get on with it,” he said. “It’s not the largest span in the world. It doesn’t have to be overly complicated. Let’s just get it built.”

The former Kamloops mayor expressed his concern the NDP government will treat the Red Bridge the same way it treated a replacement for Parkcrest Elementary School, which burned down in 2019. A new school reopened on the site five years later.

“On the one hand, they account for [Parkcrest] like it was a fire insurance claim — which they should do. But when you talk to the bureaucracy, they talk about it as if it’s new school capital into Kamloops. They better not be counting the Red Bridge as new transportation capital into Kamloops. It was a provincial asset that burned down and the province needs to replace.”