Welcome to Your Kamloops!

How was the Year at the North Shore Business Improvement Association?

At city hall on tuesday, the Executive Director of the North Shore Business Improvement Association (NSBIA), Steven Puhallo, stated that 2016 was a great year for the association. There has been a lot of recent and significant road and bridge upgrades / repairs that made it more difficult for some to access North Kamloops commercial areas. In 2016, all that work had been completed. The new, expanded North Shore Policing Office has also been welcomed by the BIA.  A new sign replaced the tired old one by the Tranquille Rd overpass over the Overlanders Bridge. Slides from Mr Puhallo's presentation to council are available in the council agenda package for this week. 

Business Improvement Associations (BIAs) are funded by an additional levy put on commercial properties in a geographically defined neighbourhood. These levies are collected by city hall and, after a council vote, the funds are released to a BIA for its activities. The BIA promotes and supports businesses within their neighbourhood. Kamloops has two BIAs at the moment - the NSBIA and the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association. Both these associations have turned into critical hubs of business activity and of community events. 

Why It's Sometimes Important for People to Attend a Council Meeting...

We heard an application at today's council meeting for a resident to keep 3 dogs on their property. The limit is 2 but residents can apply to council for a variance to keep 3. Typically for these applications, the resident wanting the variance comes to council to verbally present their arguments as to why approval should be granted and to answer any questions council may have. This did not happen today. We did turn down the application. I am not saying we would have approved it if the applicant had appeared but, at least, it might have given the applicant more of a chance. I did a short Facebook live video on this soon after the council meeting:

https://www.facebook.com/bettercitizen/videos/10158035619560247/?l=6715786865035595522

Snow Patience...

 

We are in an extended deep freeze, the likes we have not seen in a long time. Add to this the snowfall in the past day or two, things tend to start to go a bit funny. Cars spinning out, people slipping, etc. If anyone needs help shovelling snow, feel free to be in touch - 250 320 6532 or [email protected]. 

I am thankful for the city crews who are keeping the roads, paths, and public sidewalks passable. And thank you to all the store owners, staff, and homeowners / renters who are keeping sidewalks cleared. It is enormously helpful.

We will need a bit of patience with all this for a while. Be careful for yourselves and for others.

A Couple of Early Thoughts on Kamloops in 2017...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the awesome members of the Kamplan (Kamloops' Official Community Plan) Review Committee at our December 2016 Meeting

All the very best in 2017 to you and to those you hold dear!

Here's a few early thoughts on happenings in the community in 2017:

1) The Media: It would be awesome if a more daily print publication reappeared in Kamloops. I will also be interested to see what substantive changes new Radio NL news director Shane Woodford makes with the mighty NL's coverage. Will NL New's reputation as Fox News Kamloops continue? When is Kamloops media legend Doug Collins contemplating retirement? How will Mel Rothenburger's desire to be both a commentator and a politician play out this year? 

2) Ajax: I'm hoping the revised Ajax mine application will be made public soon. This continues to be a very challenging issue for the community and I think we have to find ways to bridge some of those divides in 2017. Perhaps, supporters and opponents of Ajax can be brought together to think about economic development projects they could all largely support. As I have committed, I will take a position on Ajax after I have reviewed the next revised mine application.

3) Engaging Business on Climate Change: I am a huge advocate of proactive work to address greenhouse gas emissions. As a longtime businessperson, I feel this is also in our long term economic interests. I look forward to working with local business organizations to showcase opportunities and challenges in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Kamloops. There is a lot more common ground than we often think. The ideological and partisan battles in BC often get in the way of the best solutions. 

4) The Provincial Election: It's going to be a little more tricky for Kamloops city council in this provincial election. We have 2 council members running for different political parties. Council, as a whole, will stay neutral and above the partisan fray. Obviously, credible candidates should have policies that speak to local government. If Mayor Milobar and/or Councillor Cavers get elected, council will have some decisions to be made as to whether or not to hold a byelection. 

5) The Official Community Plan Revision: This is a huge piece of community work but one that sometimes totally flies under the radar. The revised plan, done properly, should reflect community values in the design, look, and feel of neighbourhoods and commercial centres. It will help influence how much we use our vehicles and the types of shopping and public facilities we have available. Much more also. I would certainly suggest this section of the city website for more info. I will be soliciting citizen input and there will be also staff led opportunities for public input before the approval of the plan this spring. 

The Challenges and Opportunities of Policing Kamloops...

I have got a lot of time for the Superintendent of the RCMP’s Kamloops Detachment. Brad Mueller leads a strong RCMP team in one of the more complex policing environments we’ve seen for some time.

 

This year seems to be a challenging one in terms of increases in criminal activity. In the spring and summer, Kamloops council members heard a lot from business people downtown and along the Tranquille corridor. Into the fall, we have started to hear concerns from residents in neighbourhoods.

 

We really appreciate hearing from people and we share all of what we hear with community safety staff and the RCMP. Always feel free to contact council members with your concerns.

 

It’s difficult sometimes to act immediately but, in my experience, the RCMP do act on legitimate community concern. It sometimes takes time to investigate or lower the amount of crime. The RCMP and city hall’s track record of helping decrease criminal activity, over time, is very good.

 

In a recent radio interview, Supt Mueller talked about how community members could reduce the incidences of “crimes of opportunity”. One good simple tip: not leaving valuables in the car. We have seen a lot of businesses and residential owners use camera systems as a deterrent and as an investigative tool.

 

Often, the RCMP are asked to be what they are not. They are not social workers. Community safety issues need a team approach. Social agencies, business associations, bylaws, RCMP, and city staff meet regularly to coordinate efforts. We have much better coordination, communication, and cooperation than we did a decade ago.

 

City council has been actively working with the RCMP to ensure we get all the RCMP members we budget for. We have historically had a smaller complement of members because of national RCMP recruitment challenges. Recent news from RCMP BC HQ has been encouraging. We are hopeful for much closer to full complement soon.

 

We are also hopeful that the RCMP national leadership will reconsider a decision to decrease the opportunities for Auxiliary RCMP members to serve the community. The Auxiliary program in Kamloops has an incredible history of providing strong service in many areas of policing. I feel strongly we can keep auxiliary members as safe as possible while continuing to offer them a satisfying and large range of ways to serve.

 

I am hopeful this post gives you a bit more information to the various ways we are working together to bring crime down again. We are still very much a safe community in comparison to many. I welcome any thoughts or concerns you might have. Please feel free to call me at 250 320 6532 or to email [email protected].

UBCM 2016 - some key themes and takeways for me...

All photo credits: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ubcm 

 

 

 

I feel like this might be the start of a few different posts about UBCM 2016, reporting back what I and Kamloops Council did there. The UBCM convention is alway packed with a lot of things. Here is the program for this year. 

 

It’s always very hard to distill down a week packed full of learning, networking, reflecting, and lobbying into one blog post. The UBCM convention continues to be an extremely valuable opportunity for our community to talk about and learn about our own opportunities and challenges.

 

As a member of the UBCM executive, I have a bit of an inside view on how the convention is put together and implemented. Reflecting the great diversity in BC communities, it really needs to offer a great diversity of opportunities. It also offers opportunities for all these communities to work together on issues and opportunities we all share and care about.

 

 

 

The diversity of offerings at convention may be one reason why convention feedback is also very diverse. One person’s favourite feature is likely to be another’s least favourite. There are definitely many times of the day with overlapping events. 

 

I had the great opportunity this year to help host sessions on climate action, housing, and strong communities.

 

Climate action is a topic of great interest to me and to many others at the convention this year. To sum up my impressions:

 

 - the Province has put out a new leadership plan which will not meet emission reduction goals embodied in international agreements.

 - the Province recognizes this, sees the new plan as a start, and recognizes they have much to do still. They are also waiting for the Canadian government to setup its carbon pricing scheme across Canada, so that BC will not lose any economic competitiveness vis a vis other provinces. 

- there are certainly powerful groups who have not yet fully committed to move towards greenhouse gas reductions on the timeline necessary to avoid higher than 2 degrees centigrade global temperature rise. 

- there are a lot of local governments who are doing amazing things to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and we need to do a better job sharing best practices. These local governments also face capacity issues in their greenhouse reduction work.

- there are some very interesting efforts to develop commercial technology that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions going into the atmosphere. 

- its important to for businesses to see an economic profitable pathway in a new low carbon society. Huge potential for growth and profit in green and clean business.

- local governments are well placed to engage their community members on the importance of climate action and the opportunities and challenges in moving to a 100% renewable energy future. 

 

Initial potential takeaways for Kamloops:

 - Fortis BC reps may be interested in working with the city to create renewable natural gas through waste streams.

- City may want to look at opportunities to pilot innovative greenhouse gas reduction technologies in partnership with one of presenters at convention, the Institute for Breakthrough Energy and Emissions Technology - http://www.ibetccc.com/about

- City should continue to work in partnership with other local governments and the province and should also make sure we are meaningfully reducing corporate and community emissions locally. 

 

 

 

I also helped host 2 sessions on housing and housing affordability. One session gave local government delegates an opportunity to provide input to the provincial submission on the national housing strategy and the other provided a lot of very practical information on how collaboration can lead to more affordable housing being built in a community. A summary on my impressions:

 

- local governments have quite a few tools to help facilitate the building of a diversity of housing. Its important to take a strategic approach based on an assessment of one’s own community’s opportunities and challenges.

- it’s a good idea to engage neighbourhoods on housing developments, especially if they might be controversial, well ahead of public hearings.

- New Westminister saw new rental housing increase dramatically through a combination of relaxing parking requirements and offering developers the chance to build more units if they included rental in their new developments.

- local government support key for provincial housing funding and resources.

- affordability crisis in lower mainland is causing people to consider Kamloops and other interior communities. 

 

 

 

Initial potential takeaways for Kamloops:

 - we may want to ask to meet the Provincial Housing Minister every year at UBCM to express willingness to work together to help create diverse housing opportunities for citizens in Kamloops and to touch base face to face on opportunities and challenges.

 - we should continue to build on the incentives we already provide for people to build affordable rental housing.

 

 

 

Policing came up time and again in the resolutions session at UBCM, with quite animated debates. This was a bit of a surprise to me, as there wasn’t any real buzz before convention about these resolutions. There was a concern with ability to pay for RCMP contracts. Many smaller but growing communities are being faced with increased costs because as they reach a certain level of population, their contribution to policing costs increases quite dramatically. Rural areas don’t want to pay more for their policing and would not want to see costs shifted from municipal budgets. 

Concerns that every local government shares is the uncertainty about certain RCMP costs in the future (eg. pensions, new BC HQ) and the shifting of DNA analysis costs to local government without any consultation from the province or the federal government. 

 

Takeaways

 - Kamloops has a healthy RCMP reserve fund and we continue to monitor the costs of the RCMP contract. Our big issue has been trying to secure all the RCMP members we have budgeted for. We met with the RCMP Deputy Commissioner at UBCM and he committed those members will be coming soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick updates from Kamloops City Council today....

First City Council meeting in a month and we had a pretty action packed agenda. Here are some notable items:

•  After a presentation from Dr Silvina Mema and other officials from Interior Health, we supported the concept of a safe consumption site in Kamloops in principle. I think this "preliminary" endorsement  speaks to council's understanding that we are in a public health emergency with regards to overdoses in the community and the desire to engage the community further as to how such a site could be made successful not just for drug consumers but also for businesses and neighbourhoods. We also talked about the need for other harm reduction measures, the importance of finding suitable and acceptable locations, and the importance of thorough engagement. We are still very early in the process and council might not support this initiative in later stages. 
  
  
• We received a staff report detailing capital projects in the community that overall came under budget. We transferred the surplus funds back to the original funding sources. 
  
  
• We decided to replace all remaining diesel buses in the Kamloops transit fleet with CNG buses.
  
  
• We approved the property tax exemptions for various places of worship and non profits in Kamloops. We decided to approve a property tax exemption for the Desert Gardens senior centre, which staff had originally recommended we discontinue. 
  
  
• We supported the development permit for an exciting looking new downtown commercial and residential six storey building downtown, next to the Doubletree Hotel.
  
  
• We witnessed incredible bravery as four mothers, two with children who have had cancer and two who have tragically lost a child to cancer, presented to council on the importance of greater awareness of research into childhood cancer. Council unanimously and solemnly proclaimed the month of September "Childhood Cancer Awareness Month". 

 

A Bit of a Bittersweet Start to September....

Mayor Peter Milobar announces his bid for the Kamloops North Thompson BC Liberal Party Nomination.

I've always wondered why people run for provincial or federal elected office. I have a lot of time and respect for our current local MLA duo and for our MP. My Dad even tried twice to get elected an MLA.

But, at city council, we look for reasons to agree and to work together. That's in the culture of most local governments. In Victoria and Ottawa, it seems they look for reasons to disagree. At least, thats how it often seems. I've shared these sentiments, from time to time, with our local MLAs - so hopefully its no surprise to them how I view this.

Just recently, two of my council colleagues, Mayor Peter Milobar and Councillor Donovan Cavers, have announced bids to get into provincial politics. Peter first has a tough nomination election against another very solid candidate, Stephen Puhallo. And, Donovan will have a tougher battle trying to be the first Green ever elected in Kamloops in a provincial election. 

Councillor Donovan Cavers announced as BC Green Party Candidate for the Kamloops South Thompson Riding.

So, although I wish them the very very best, I can't help but have a bittersweet feeling. Council is potentially losing contributing members. And they are going into a pretty tough place for people who are more use to working together than working against folks. 

And another person dear to me, former city councillor Nancy Bepple, recently posted a new shiny profile picture on facebook. All excited, I commented "Nancy 2018", thinking this was the early steps in a bit to get back on city council. And then Nancy also announces for the provincial NDP. 

Former councillor Nancy Bepple's Shiny Facebook Photo

 

I am also hoping that, if elected, they will bring more cross partisan styles to their work. I've seen the three of them do this for a long time locally. 

Converting the pool at McDonald Park to a spray park and a wading pool...

 

 This was a tough decision for me, especially as we started to hear heartfelt support for the pool staying open. I indeed supported reconsideration of the decision at a second council meeting in order for council to have more discussion and thought. I ultimately voted again for the conversion but, again, it was not an easy decision at all.

 

McDonald Park pool is 58 years old. It’s starting to show its advanced age. Usage at the pool is low comparably to other community pools in Kamloops. (Although thats not saying, in any way, that the users are not passionate and important. I’ll get to that in the next paragraph). The public subsidy per swim is about $18. The pool is in need of a drain replacement and there is the chance of more expensive repairs in the near future. A pool replacement would be in the million of dollars. 

 

McDonald Park pool has undoubtedly been a historical anchor for the neighbourhood. Many neighbourhood families have benefited from an affordable recreation opportunity very close by. As a much younger person, I have fond memories of a session of swimming lessons in the summer sun at the pool. The lifeguards and staff at the pool have worked with many neighbourhood youth, passing on various important life lessons. We had a very active group of concerned citizens who asked council to keep the pool open. 

 

I would not have supported the closure of McDonald Park pool if nothing was coming in place. The expanded spray park and new wading pool, to me, was very important. My feeling is that, on balance, more citizens would be better served from this. The wading pool at Prince Charles Park is such an incredibly vibrant place. We would be serving children, parents, and grandparents. And these amenities will be more affordable - i.e. free - for people and more affordable for the community as a whole.

 

This does leave a gap, though. I want to acknowledge that. There are youth, families, and individual citizens who are feeling the loss of the pool. The fact that the pool was dismantled the day after the vote on the conversion upset some citizens.

 

Going forward, I would love to be part of conversations and initiatives to help people impacted to easily access Brock pool / another community pool or to find equally satisfying replacement activities. 

Kamloops Gardening under the New Pesticide Bylaw...

 I know gardening season is fast upon us again in Kamloops. And as the swing vote on banning certain ingredients in pesticides for cosmetic use, I feel a special responsibility to help citizens garden well under the new bylaw. First step, sharing this page on the city website.