A Kamloops City Councillor says there should be some “encouraging news” in the City’s multi-year quest to have Community Services Officers recognized as peace officers in the near future.

Kelly Hall – who chairs the Safety and Security Select Committee – says that is what he took away from a recent meeting with Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth and Attorney General Niki Sharma.

He says it appears the Province is waiting to finalize changes to the Police Act after legislation tabled by Farnworth on April 6, was given Royal Assent on April 25.

“I think what they need to do is they need to have approval of the changes that are necessary in the Police Act,” Hall said, on NL Newsday. “My understanding is that is forthcoming fairly shortly.”

“As soon as they’re finished that, I think there is some encouraging news that will be coming forward with respect to peace officer status for our CSOs. We were told to be very optimistic.”

The City began the process to expand the role of the CSOs in May of last year, with CSOs expected to be working around the clock by July.

“I took a look at the [Police Act] reforms that were presented, I think it was in 2018, so [the Province has] been working on it for some time,” Hall added. “It’ll be interesting to see when they have the opportunity to present that, and I’m really excited to see that hopefully move forward here in the next little while.”

“I think the work that acting CAO Byron McCorkell has done at putting forward the CAO program is remarkable and something that we can really feel proud of when we finally push that across the finish line.”

McCorkell previously told Radio NL it was “unfortunate” that the creation of the CSO program “was not perfect,” – referencing the pushback from CUPE Local 900. But with those issues now resolved, McCorkell says work to expand the program is ongoing.

“The CSO program is designed to create an officer who is capable of providing outreach, providing enforcement, providing support for folks on the street, and its working extremely well,” McCorkell said.

“What we were trying to do is take a position of a bylaw officer and give them the ability to provide services for the concerns that the community currently has.”

The CSO program has been praised by incumbent Kamloops RCMP Superintendent Jeff Pelley as well as his predecessor Superintendent, Syd Lecky, prior to his departure in late 2022.

While its not clear when CSOs will begin to be classified as peace officers, Hall says he hopes it happens before the writ drops for the Oct. 19 provincial election.

“In all of our conversations, you heard the word mandate a few times,” Hall said. “If you’re a skeptic, you might say ‘is it going to happen in this mandate or is it going to happen in potentially the next mandate?'”

“I’m hopeful that it’ll happen with this mandate.”