Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

BUILD KAMLOOPS

Kamloops mayor pushes to pause Wednesday groundbreaking for arts centre

Nov 24, 2025 | 4:24 PM

KAMLOOPS — The mayor of Kamloops is hoping to put a pause on this Wednesday’s (Nov 26) scheduled ground breaking for the Kamloops Centre for the Arts.

With the city staring down a more than a 10 per cent tax increase and costs already increasing on the performing arts centre before a shovel has hit the dirt, Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson is looking for support to delay the signature Build Kamloops project.

“I want the brakes to get on. Nobody knew this was going to cost another $20 million, and really, number one you don’t look at other sites,” said Hamer-Jackson. “I have been asking for federal and provincial substantial grant funding forever. Again, we can’t take it on. It’s going to be up to $500 million and just this one project, it’s a lot more money. I think we need to get the public more involved in these situations.”

The project is currently estimated to cost as much as around $211 million, with about $188 million in funding currently available, according to city staff.

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A pause could equate to a one per cent tax decrease this year if council removes the Build Kamloops line item from the budget. That one per cent cumulative tax increase was implemented in 2024 and it is set to end after the 2028 budget.

If the city was to stop collecting money from taxpayers for Build Kamloops, it would result in an approximately three per cent tax decrease this year.

Staff informed council last week that accessibility code regulations would result in the loss of several planned underground parking stalls, unless an additional $22 million is invested to add a second underground level.

That has Hamer-Jackson worried about loss of revenue and location.

“Again, that is where I learned we are earning $150,000 on a non-flat lot. Well, it doesn’t need to be flat. It’s been collecting $150,000 a year,” said Hamer-Jackson. “We have a site down on River Street. We have about a 0.5 kilometre — if you go under the 10th Street underpass and go by the ballparks and the Yacht Club — we have about 0.5 kilometre there and I believe we can have a performing arts centre.”

It’s not the first time Hamer-Jackson has tried to get the arts centre moved over to River Street, though he’s faced opposition from some of his colleagues and proponents of the project.

In February 2024, Councillor Mike O’Reilly, a former Build Kamloops Select Committee chair, said the arts centre project has been earmarked for the downtown core to better integrate it to the city centre.

“The Sagebrush [Theatre] has been fantastic since it opened in the 1970s, but it is an island on its own. There is not the economic spinoff of people coming downtown to have dinner and socialize and then go to a show and then fill the restaurants afterwards,” O’Reilly said at the time.

“When we look at somewhere like a River [Street], we would be in the exact same spot as we are now, having an island facility.”