Kamloops City councillors are being asked to approve $4.75 million in additional funding so detailed design work on the RCMP Battle Street detachment expansion project can get underway.
A report from staff will go before council this Tuesday, May 10, outing the reasons why city staff say the expansion should be a priority before the new council is elected in October.
“What we are suggesting is that the validation (preliminary planning) work, once complete, could come back to the new council in early 2023 but that work would essentially be finished this summer,” Civic Operations Director, Jen Fretz, told NL News.
“So we would be waiting until the new council was in to bring that forward or if this current council wishes we could more forward with detailed design work and avoid any delay.”
A business case which included that preliminary planning work at a cost of $750,000 was put forward in early 2020, but Fretz tells NL News that work did not get underway until late last year because of the pandemic.
“The City’s team is currently doing that validation work and if council would like us to, we can just complete that work and then bring back a cost range for them this summer,” Fretz said, noting that move would require adding $800,000 with the money coming from Gaming Fund reserves.
“Or for $4.75 million we can complete the detailed design now and bring back a very firm number to council in the new year. That would remove any delay between us bringing forward the validation work and bringing forward the actual cost of the building.”
While the expansion is currently expected to cost between $50 million and $80 million, Fretz says it would double the size of the downtown Kamloops detachment and serve the city’s policing needs for the next 15 years.
Built in 1990, the 40,000 sq. foot Battle Street detachment was built in 1990 with a capacity of 85 employees. City staff say it is currently holding 190 employees – both RCMP officers and municipal support staff – double its original intended occupancy.
If approved, Fretz says Council would also need to approve the short-term borrowing of that $4.75 million, though she tells NL News staff are looking for any grant funding that could reduce the cost to taxpayers.
But she notes moving ahead with the detailed design work now could save up to $7.1 million on the overall construction estimate.
“This $4.75 million ask does not tie the hands of the next council,” Fretz said. “This is not a go ahead for the building at all, this is to get more information so that we can provide more detail to our next council.”
“We want to give council as much information as possible.”
Find the full report from the City of Kamloops’ Civic Operations Department here.
