A rendering of proposed $77-million renovation to the Kamloops RCMP detachment. (Photo via City of Kamloops)
A Kamloops City Committee has been presented with a pair of options to expand and renovate the existing RCMP detachment, plans which could also see the building on Battle Street repurposed into a new City Hall.
Capital Projects Manager Matt Kachel says the $77 million option will keep the RCMP headquarters in its current location for seven years, while the $96 million option will do so for 15 years.
Kachel said the City team tasked with coming up with these plans included architects, engineers, builders, and representatives from the RCMP E Division in Surrey.
“We would kind of chase the police out,” Kachel told the Build Kamloops Select Committee meeting this week. “In seven years, as presented in this plan, that would become a new civic administration building and then we would need to start thinking about a full new detachment for the police.”
“It’s a bit of a weird way to put it, but we’re designing a city hall that the RCMP use for seven years and then switch out, and then the new RCMP [headquarters] that we would need to build would be just for them and it would be a longer term, 20, 30, 50 year plan.”
Both options presented Tuesday include a six-storey tower which adds about 40,000 sq. ft of space as well as renovations to the existing facility. There are more RCMP-specific upgrades like forensics labs and cellblocks included in the more expensive option.
A breakdown of projected costs to renovate the Kamloops RCMP detachment as of Oct. 2023. (Photo via City of Kamloops)
In a report to the Build Kamloops Select Committee, Kachel said the RCMP headquarters was built with a capacity of 85 officers in 1990, when the City’s population was approximately 67,000 people.
“Since the 1990s, the city’s overall geographic size and population have grown,” Kachel wrote. “This, combined with ongoing changes in the way local policing is performed and an increase in the number of RCMP members required to deliver policing services, has placed a considerable strain on the Battle Street RCMP Detachment building, which has resulted in the need to address the space constraints.”
“The detachment building currently has an occupancy of approximately 150 employees that was designed to accommodate 85.”
Last May, council approved spending $4.75 million for detailed design plans to expand the building. At that time, staff expected the expansion costs to be in the range of $50 million and $80 million.
A rendering of proposed $96-million renovation to the Kamloops RCMP detachment. (Photo via City of Kamloops)
Kachel says staff will be recommending the cheaper option when the time comes.
“[The] 15 year plan represented the maximum capacity that we could see for growth for the RCMP,” Kachel told Radio NL. “The seven year plan avoided some of the RCMP specific renovations such as forensics labs or cellblocks or stuff [that would be located in a new atrium] that would be hard to convert later.”
“The second option or the option two is more of a flexible option that makes it easier for us to convert to a different civic use down the road.”
He says one possible use of the building could be housing both Kamloops City Hall, currently located at 7 Victoria Street West, and the Development and Engineering Services offices, currently at 107 Seymour Street, under one roof.
“It would try to centralize everybody into one building but we haven’t advanced that option super far down the road,” Kachel added.
“That would be another capital project. We’re just setting up for it with what we do here so that that can happen relatively easily down the road.”
In his report, Kachel said both of those city buildings have also reached their “carrying capacity” with upgrades required in the future as well.
Build Kamloops Committee Chair Mike O’Reilly said Tuesday that the discussion should include all of council and not just the five-person committee. He also noted that RCMP building is a “must have” and not something that can be put off.
“I worry that we’re not meeting our contractual obligations with the RCMP as required,” O’Reilly said. “As has been mentioned, we’re over double capacity and that’s not slowing down.”
“There’s been a very focused movement by this council to hire more RCMP officers, and for the first time in a long time, we’re getting those. And so that really does concern me.”
At this time, there is no word when this renovation project will move forward – or who will pay for it – as those decisions will ultimately be up to City Council.
“The end of the line, at least for me right now, was to get this information over to the committee,” Kachel told Radio NL. “I’m waiting to hear back what next steps are so I’m not exactly sure. We just wanted to get all of this information out there because we have been working on it, as probably many could see, for quite a while.”
“We just wanted to get it out there so the committee and council could consider next steps.”
