It seems as though headway is finally being made on plans to build up the sports and recreation infrastructure in Kamloops.

Councillor Stephen Karpuk revealed to council Tuesday that the city’s Build Kamloops Conceptual Team met this week to sort through potential ideas to bolster recreational infrastructure.

“In addition to the [performing] arts centre, the focus was on a new Curling Centre of Excellence. Ice, and what iteration that will be, as possibly four sheets of ice or possibly more. Indoor soccer, and whether it will be one field or more, plus the possibility of outside. And an aquatic centre,” said Karpuk as part of his Councillor Report Tuesday.

He suggests the proposed aquatic centre being floated would be large scale.

“The direction of that was to look at things that came out of that including water slides, indoor spray park,” said Karpuk.

Karpuk says the Build Kamloops Conceptual Team is also looking at bolstering said projects with additional infrastructure.

“We’re looking at the incorporation of possibly housing into some of these projects so that we can address some out housing needs, certainly in the downtown and other parts of the city,” said Karpuk.

What he did not reveal as part of his report was possible locations for the projects, and what cost implications there might be.

The report from the Build Kamloops Conceptual Team will now be moving forward to the city’s broader, Build Kamloops Select Committee, for further discussion.

Build Kamloops has a mandate to discuss and prioritize the cost, scope, and timelines of various projects in the Recreation Master Plan.

Those projects include a performing-arts centre – identified as the top priority – as well as a new leisure pool on the North Shore, additional ice rinks, and a large curling club facility to accommodate consolidation of both current curling clubs.

In March of last year, the City allocated $1 million of its $15.6 million share of the provincial Growing Communities grant towards the Build Kamloops initiative, with another approximately $4.3 million unallocated at this time.

There is also a plan to use one per cent ($1.35 million) of the nearly 11 per cent property tax hike in 2024 to support future debt repayment that would be required to finance the Build Kamloops plan.

– With files from Victor Kaisar