The mayor of Kamloops says the city will need to establish a right-of-way through Crown land to build a second road in and out of Juniper.

Speaking on NL Newsday, Ken Christian says he and city manager David Trawin spoke about that matter with Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Minister Katrine Conroy and Municipal Affairs Minister Josie Osborne.

As it stands, the city’s plan is to connect Qu’Appelle Boulevard to Rose Hill Road, north of Rose Hill Park, with a paved route. Currently, there is an unkept dirt road in that location with a locked gate, which runs through Crown land.

“There’s a piece that they’re going to give up for the school, which is going to be a Crown grant there,” Christian says, referencing plans for an eventual Juniper West Elementary. “And then there’s a FortisBC right-of-way through there, and then there’s a smaller piece of Crown land there.”

Christian says a paved road will be built for emergency access only at first, until upgrades are done to make it a thru road. “Until we get an opportunity to rebuild Rose Hill Road and look at the Rose Hill Road/ Valleyview Drive interchange. So there’s a bunch of big components to that to make it permanent. But right now we just want to make a paved, secondary access out of Juniper Ridge.”

The city has been planning to build new paved routes in and out of Juniper, but that planning has been expedited after the Kamloops East wildfire on Canada Day which forced the entire community to evacuate after it broke out. Staff are now immediately planning to build a permanent second route.

Christian, a Juniper Ridge resident himself who had to evacuate on the night of July 1, says the fire nearby was “frightening to say the least, and traumatic for some.”

An exact timeline for building the new thoroughfare between Juniper and Rose Hill has not yet been determined, nor has a cost.

Kamloops is also looking to get onto the Voyent Alert App, which residents have been recommended to subscribe to for information during an emergency, however the City of Kamloops is not included in the alert system.

In his meeting with Conroy and Osborne, Christian asked for funding from the B.C. government to include Kamloops in that public service.

He says funding has also been requested for the eventual new route into Juniper. “Funding for additional egresses for climate adaptation, really.”