City officials are not expecting any delays in the planning and construction of a pair of contentious Build Kamloops projects, despite a legal challenge to their financing.

A petition filed in BC Supreme Court last month by a Kamloops resident claims the City didn’t follow the proper “spirit and intent” of the Alternative Approval Process.

The passing of the AAP in September gave final approvals to previously-passed bylaws, which give the City the ability to borrow as much as $275 million to build the long-planned Centre for the Performing Arts, as well as a four-plex ice rink in Dufferin.

The suit filed on October 22nd alleges a variety of missteps by the City during the AAP, including the approval of a counter-petition window at a time-of-year when people vacation, as well as allegations surrounding the clarity of voting notifications given to the public, while also questioning the metrics used to come up with the voter threshold needed to quash process.

While the City is going to dispute the allegations if the case does go before a Justice, Deputy Mayor for November, Dale Bass, has confirmed the City has hit pause on its option to begin the loan approval process while the matter is before the courts.

“I fear what’s going to happen is its going to cost the taxpayers some more money to go into court to, perhaps, have the judge — most likely — say the provincial government approved this process,” said Bass, who notes the AAP was vetted by the BC government before the City opened the counter-petition process on July 30th.  “The Ministry approved this… the provincial government approved this. They said ya, this is OK, we like the wording you’ve got now. Go for it.”

Even though the borrowing process has been put on hold, Bass says planning work the projects will continue.

“As we move forward, we’re going to use some of our internal funds that are available,” noted Bass.  “Then, when we get to the point where we start to need to spend the bigger money, that’s when we planned on applying [for a loan]”

City council had already approved spending $7 million in February to complete the final design work on the Centre for the Performing Arts.

Design cost estimates for the multiplex have not been set, though a council committee voted during an October 21st meeting to recommend the whole of council authorize designs for a four ice-sheet concept.

Construction of both projects has been set to begin in late 2025 or early 2026.

While the City would have a year to battle the court challenge before the start of construction, it’s believed the City’s Finance Department would prefer flexibility in deciding when to launch a lending request with the Municipal Finance Authority, which is the financing vehicle used by local governments in BC to secure long-term loans.

Flexibility would allow the City to be more strategic in its timing when submitting its loan application.

The MFA normally requires to be formalized 6 weeks  ahead of its Annual General Meeting in March and its Semi-Annual meeting in September — the only times of the year the Municipal Finance Authority Board  gives ahead of the two times a year its board request to be submitted 6 weeks ahead of both its Spring and Fall issue windows, which is when it

The MFA

bond rating, questions surrounding how the Bank of Canada may move forward with its interest rate policies as Donald Trump — and his threat of protectionist tariffs — settle into the White House in January.

process tell RadioNL that part of the Build Kamloops financing plan includes  paying off the debt Kamloops still has through the MFA for earlier municipal projects, such as the Tournament Capital Center.

This would then allow the City to use of that infrastructure a collateral to back new, possibly more favorable loans, to get the Performing Arts Centre and the multiplex built and operational, which has been tentatively set for mid-2029.

Dates for when — or if — the BC Supreme Court could take up the legal challenge to the City’s borrowing bylaws have not been made public.