By Adam Donnelly

City wants citizens feedback on recreation in Kamloops

Sep 18, 2018 | 5:21 PM

KAMLOOPS — There’s no doubt that many of the recreational facilities in the city of Kamloops are among the best in the province, but do they keep up with the increasing demand that the growing population of the city put on them? That’s exactly what the city is hoping to find out with a survey available to residents.

“I’m hoping our citizens are going to let us know what they think we need in our community,” City of Kamloops Recreation, Health & Wellness Supervisor Linda Stride explained. “Where are the gaps, as it relates to recreation?”

The City of Kamloops is looking for feedback from residents on recreation in the community. With the data they compile from the survey, the idea is to create a Recreation Master Plan, a document which will serve as a guide to where the city invests tax dollars earmarked for recreation for the next decade.

“The document is meant to be a guide in helping the city shape the future of recreation as it relates to programs, services, and infrastructure,” Stride said.

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For some sports user groups like Kamloops Minor Lacrosse, competing with some of the bigger youth sporting organizations for field and facility space can be a challenge.

“[The city] is leaving the ice in longer and longer, so we’re not able to get the practice times in and get the teams in there until almost two weeks after the season starts in the rest of the zone,” Kamloops Minor Lacrosse President Brook Webster explained. “With Field [Lacrosse] in particular, it would be great to have some more lit fields in town. We’re competing for very few lit fields, so that’s a big one.”

It’s also important to note that for the purpose of the survey, the term recreation includes arts and culture. According to the Executive Director of the Kamloops Symphony, she’s a little disappointed the survey doesn’t really reflect the needs of the arts community.

“There were no questions about facilities related to arts and culture,” Kathy Humphrey’s said. “There were a couple of comments about what kinds of things you like to do in the community… but nothing really addressing the bigger picture.”

When asked what was on her wishlist for arts infrastructure, Humphreys replied: “Very top of the list is a new performance space that is of considerable size.”

Those concerns are the reason the city is engaging in the consultation process.

“It’s really going to be a holistic document that looks at recreation overall,” Stride says. “That will include sport, that’ll include fitness, arts, culture, accessibility… what’s really important to us is that this is an opportunity for our citizens to have a say in the future of recreation in our community.”

The survey is available to residents until the end of the month. Stride says as part of the community consultation process, there will also be a pair of open houses – one each on the South Shore on October 1st at Sandman Centre, and on the North Shore at the Mac Island Sport Centre on October 2nd – after that the data will be given to consultants to be compiled, with the final results being presented to the City Council in the Spring of 2019. 

You can click here for the link to the Recreation Master Plan Survey.