Kamloops council chaos the impetus behind potential new provincial legislation: minister

Jun 13, 2025 | 6:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s no secret that the current Kamloops city council’s term has been anything but smooth sailing. Earlier this week, the city published an entire 433-page report into the ongoing dysfunction, and the work with Minister of Municipal Affairs Ravi Kahlon to support proper governance in the city. The release of the document came a day before Tuesday’s (June 10) regular meeting of council, which was again bogged down by familiar challenges.

Tuesday’s council meeting again featured many of the same challenges that have persisted since the 2022 municipal election. Extended conversations around closed meetings are a near constant on Tuesdays at the Kamloops chambers. And even after nearly three years, Tuesday’s meeting featured dysfunction in new and public ways, as Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson walked out at one point, with the meeting proceeding without him.

After reading the 433-page update into the challenges in Kamloops, Municipal Affairs Minister Kahlon called it flat out troubling.

“I went to Kamloops to meet with mayor and council to try and press reset in the relationship so we can find a better path forward and, at the last moment, the mayor said he didn’t want to participate. The entire report is frustrating,” Kahlon told CFJC News.

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The challenges in Kamloops have become the impetus for potential legislative changes from the New Democrat government.

“My expectation is that we will be able to have changes in place so in the next election, which is next year, a new mayor, a new council will come in and they will have real clear guidelines on what they can do, what they can’t do and what happens if you continuously break rules,” said Kahlon.

The challenge for the province is balancing how much direction should come from upper levels, without superseding local autonomy.

“I was trying to avoid this way. I was trying to find ways that local governments can solve these issues themselves. But this is a poster child in Kamloops of how that is not possible,” said Kahlon.

by Michael Reeve

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Kamloops council chaos the impetus behind potential new provincial legislation: minister

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