The Tobiano Fire Department. (Image Credit: TNRD)

By Victor Kaisar

TNRD Fire Referendum

TNRD residents vote against proposed expanded Tobiano and Cherry Creek fire protection service

Jun 22, 2025 | 6:00 AM

KAMLOOPS — It’s back to the drawing board for the Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD) as residents of Tobiano and Cherry Creek voted against a new Fire Protection Service that would have covered both communities west of Kamloops.

Residents were being asked to approve $2.5 million in borrowing to fund the construction of a new fire station, and the purchase of a fire engine and a water tender.

Preliminary results released by the TNRD Saturday (June 21) night show there were nearly twice as many “no” votes cast – 326 – versus just 167 “yes” votes.

A majority of ballots – 279 – were cast on advance voting day (June 11), with another 195 votes cast on referendum day Saturday. Another 19 residents opted to vote by mail, and in all three cases the “no” votes outnumbered the “yes” votes.

“These preliminary results are based on the ballot accounts prepared at each of the above-mentioned voting places and are subject to the determination of the official assent voting results by the Chief Election Officer,” the TNRD said in a statement Saturday night.

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“Official assent voting results will be announced by the Chief Election Officer no later than 4:00 p.m. on June 25 in accordance with the Local Government Act.”

The existing Tobiano Fire protection area along with the proposed expanded area in Cherry Creek.(Image Credit: TNRD)

Of the 648 properties in the proposed new fire protection area, 382 were in Tobiano while the other 266 were in Cherry Creek.

While a breakdown of votes by community was not available, there was vocal opposition from some residents in Cherry Creek who were against the process. A petition with 275 signatories from 149 homes was presented to the TNRD on May 15.

“We were not asked whether we wanted to be part of this project or not,” petition organizer Rhonda Kopp told CFJC Today in April. “I really felt the process was unfair and biased for Cherry Creek residents.”

Kopp said many Cherry Creek residents were concerned that they would be “outnumbered” by their Tobiano counterparts. She suggested Cherry Creek residents would not have been able to afford the tax increase – $114 per $100,000 of assessment – adding some would have been forced to sell their properties to developers.

“This is not about whether you’re for the fire hall or not, it’s strictly for the opportunity to be able to have that vote,” Kopp added. “All we’re asking for is some way to be able to go and come to a decision for ourselves as a community.”

Essentially, Cherry Creek residents were hoping to be able to decide what kind of fire protection they want for themselves instead of being lumped in with Tobiano.

Last month, the TNRD opted to move ahead with the process as directors did not raise a motion to postpone or scrap the June 21 vote. That prompted Corine LeBourdais to call for the resignation of Area “J” Director Mike Grenier for “publicly ignoring the reasonable request of Cherry Creek.”

“He is actively forcing through a referendum process that is unfair and has no actual service guarantees but will result in a huge cost for all Cherry Creek residents moving forward if it is successful,” LeBourdais said in a letter to the TNRD board.

In addition to representing Cherry Creek, Grenier also serves as the director for the Tobiano area.

Next Steps

TNRD General Manager of Operations Jamie Vieira previously told CFJC Today that if the referendum failed, the regional district would shift its focus towards building a new fire hall for Tobiano residents only.

“[We would] make a determination in how to move forward,” Vieira said, noting that unlike Cherry Creek, Tobiano already has fire protection service

“We still need a fire hall, so if this is a ‘no,’ we would look at a fire hall exclusively in Tobiano and exclusively paid for by those residents.”

Residents in Tobiano are currently paying $96 for every $100,000 of assessment towards fire protection. According to the TNRD, under the joint proposal, their costs would have gone up by $18 for every $100,000 in residential assessment.

At this point its not clear what that process could look like, or where the Tobiano Fire Station will be located. The proposed fire station that would have served both communities was set to rise at the corner of Buckhorn Road and Gardi Road in Cherry Creek.

A satellite fire station was also proposed on a property off Colebrook Road, where the existing Tobiano fire department is based out of. Vieira said that is a space that the TNRD rents from the golf course.

Plans to expand the Tobiano fire protection area to include Cherry Creek in 2022 were scuttled by the province, a move 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.

“We had also 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.”

It’s currently not clear whether the TNRD will attempt to bring in fire protection for residents in Cherry Creek only, once its plans for Tobiano are complete.

For more details about the referendum and the process, go here.