Image Credit: Global News

By Jill Sperling

Majority Government

Majority mandate for NDP means four years of stability for local governments, TRU

Oct 28, 2020 | 4:31 PM

KAMLOOPS — Last Saturday (Oct. 24), B.C. elected a majority NDP government, which means the party will serve for a full four-year term.

“Now the government has a majority and there is some stability within the provincial government,” said Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian.

The City of Kamloops is among organizations and businesses evaluating their priorities for funding to bring to the newly elected government.

Christian says he will hold the government to its promise of a cancer care centre in Kamloops. He is also hoping for more supports for businesses affected by the pandemic.

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“We want to see them work with the tourism and hospitality industry as they recover from COVID-19. We want to see support for the Kamloops Airport. We certainly want to see support for Thompson Rivers University. We really need to see improvements in our infrastructure. And we need to see something for the plight of the homeless and those that are street-affected.”

TRU has been hit hard by the pandemic. A drop in international student enrollment contributed to a $9 million deficit at the beginning of the school year. TRU President Brett Fairbairn says he is looking forward to working with a majority government on recovery.

“It’s really important to have conversation partners who are present, who remain at the table, who have that longer term view,” Fairbairn. “That’s helpful for us rather than talking to a succession of different partners. We’re really looking for those multi-year partnerships.”

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District doesn’t anticipate the majority government will change the way it secures funding for projects.

“We always hope that any change will represent an improvement, but I don’t really see why it would,” said Board Chair Ken Gillis. “We have a process by which we have a full-time grants coordinator, she keeps her eye open for any opportunity that might arise and quite often if there are infrastructure projects that need to be done, like water system improvements, that kind of a thing, there will be grants available for that.”

Gillis hopes the government will include projects within the regional district in its efforts to rebuild the province post-COVID.

“They may make funding available for fire departments, or who knows what? Even parks — maybe we’ll have some money available for parks, because they seem to like that kind of infrastructure improvement,” Gillis said. “We certainly need any break we can get in terms of funding from the province.”