Protest Sign (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

BUDGET PROTEST

Kamloops residents gather to showcase concerns over rising taxes

Dec 9, 2025 | 5:12 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Kamloops Voters Society held a rally out front of city hall on Tuesday (Dec 9) afternoon just ahead of the regular scheduled council meeting. The protest was attempting to bring to light their concerns over the city proposed tax increase and use of the alternative approval process to move projects forward. Entering the meeting, city council was staring down the barrel of more than a 10 per cent tax increase, but had asked staff to bring back options to lower that figure before a final decision is made.

More than 40 concerned Kamloops residents gathered outside of city hall for the protest.

“Every year inflation goes up but so does our tax base,” said Jesse Ritcey with the Kamloops Voters Society. “So I think that it’s a bit of a misnomer that we have to build everything and build everything now to save money because we are debt financing so when we are using debt we are paying a premium on every dollar. So the sort of go big, build everything at once argument, I think is something we are cautioning against.”

While Ritcey would like to see the current 10.67 per cent tax rate come down, he noted that how it’s brought down is just as important to the final figure.

Art of Gardening

The Art of Christmas: Seasonal hand-tied bouquet

11h ago

1000 Ways To Heal

1000 Ways to Heal: We Are The Land, We Are The Future

Dec 08, 2025

Looped In

LOOPED IN WITH NIKKI OMEN: December 8, 2025

Dec 08, 2025

“Is it being brought down by cuts to core services, are we dipping a bit into reserves, are we spacing out some of these projects,” questioned Ritcey. “So It’s not wanting to do a slash and burn to things like transit, things like our parks, things about livability that really support Kamloopsians.”

Kamloops Citizens United joined the fray as well, Kathrine Wunderlich wished to see taxes come down closer to 5 per cent, taking aim at the Performing Arts Centre and Multiplex arena projects.

“This latest city council has got to rein things in, and I’m not anti-tax I believe we get good value for our taxes both federally and provincially, but right now I think they are being very reckless,” said Wunderlich. “And going to the reserve funds I think, the fiduciary responsibility is theirs and that is not responsible.”

Wunderlich also was worried about cuts happening at the bottom of the city hall food chain as opposed to the top.

“What about cuts at the top, this city is so top heavy that we are toppling over with the amount of money that we are going through for wages, some of these jobs can be amalgamated,” said Wunderlich. “But why cut rank and file, why cut services that actually make our lives better.”

Speakers also spoke out against a proposed new RCMP detachment – questioning the demolition of the old building and whether the time is right to take on another major project in the city.

Overall, AAP choices could loom large for next October’s election.

“I think questions about affordability and questions about steady leadership and vision for the community are always things that people have in mind,” said Ritcey.

Council was given a brief budget update on Tuesday citing a number of ongoing conversations to lower the taxation figure, but no hard numbers were discussed. Staff indicated they were looking at the RCMP operational budget, operating costs for BC Transit including admin costs, provincial downloading and overall service levels.