AAP will decide on borrowing for Kamloops RCMP headquarters

If 10 per cent of eligible voters oppose the borrowing, the issue will either go to referendum or back to the drawing board.

The 5-4 vote saw Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson joined by Councillors Stephen Karpuk, Katie Neustaeter and Bill Sarai in opposing an AAP.

Some, like Karpuk, saw a referendum as a better way to get the project underway without further delay.

“Waiting until 2030, I can see this being $200 million,” said Karpuk. “Given the conflicts in the world, the rate of increase on cement, steel and everything that’s going on the world – we’re not talking about a stable world right now.”

An AAP for the police headquarters was first contemplated in 2025 but put off due to the labour strife affecting Canada Post. Postal service would be necessary for some voters to return their completed forms expressing their opposition.

While AAPs on a pair of infrastructure projects – the purchase of 965 McMaster Way and the third phase of the Tranquille sanitary sewer project – were advanced earlier this year, the RCMP headquarters was not.

A longtime proponent of a referendum on the issue, Neustaeter cited the 2024 court challenge brought forward against an AAP that resulted in the approval of borrowing for a performing arts centre and arena multiplex. City staff have estimated delays in starting the projects while the court process played out resulted in about $4.5 million in additional expenses.

“We’ve had really specific circumstances unfold in our community and we’ve clearly heard them say, ‘We want to have – not an alternative process for this but a referendum process for this,'” said Neustaeter.

Councillor Dale Bass countered she and Neustaeter must be hearing from different subsets of the population.

“I know some people around this council don’t like the AAP. Lots of us do, too, and lots of us in the community really like it,” said Bass. “For everybody you’ve heard from who doesn’t like it, I’ve probably heard from somebody who does like it. It’s time for us to just make a decision.”

Joining Bass on the prevailing side was Councillor Nancy Bepple, who said adding a referendum to the Oct. 17 municipal election ballot could be confusing for some voters.

“I think it would actually be better to focus the election on who is going to be on council than having (a referendum on) something people might think is the election issue,” said Bepple.

The city is bound by its contract agreement with the RCMP to provide it with an adequate headquarters. Kamloops RCMP Supt. Jeff Pelley and his predecessors have long stated the current force has outgrown its base at 560 Battle Street.

by James Peters

AAP will decide on borrowing for Kamloops RCMP headquarters

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