The Kamloops Centre for the Arts Society says it accepts the fact that the referendum date will most likely be pushed back because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chair Norm Daley was asked by NL News, now that the City of Kamloops has formally asked the Ministry of Municipal Affairs for permission to postpone the referendum.

“Obviously if we have to press pause on this and then revisit it in a few months, or a few weeks, whatever the timeline becomes, obviously we’re prepared to do that. We’ve been out engaging people, there is a lot of talk about it, a lot of positivity about. So hopefully it is still something that will resonate with people in the weeks and months to come.”

Daley was asked what hurdles could arise because of a delay to the referendum.

“I mean it’s all speculation now, things are changing so rapidly. But any delay obviously delays the time frame for opening, this obviously just changes the timeline. Whether that was COVID-19 or some other challenge that could’ve come up in the future, really I think we just have to let the situation play out,” he says.

The referendum question will ask people in Kamloops, “are you in favour of the City of Kamloops borrowing up to $45 million to construct a Kamloops Centre for the Arts?” The term for paying that money back would be 25 years.

The KCA Society celebrated reaching 5,000 members earlier this month. It has had to call off a rally that was supposed to happen downtown on March 28th.

At this point, advanced voting for the referendum is supposed to start a week from tomorrow, on March 25th. City staff said last week that mail-in ballots from people with accessibility issues had already started to come in.