Kamloops City Councillors have unanimously approved $4.75 million in funding to allow detailed design planning work on a $50 to $80 million expansion to the downtown RCMP detachment to move ahead.
While the new City Council – which will be elected on October 15 – will deal with the details of the construction, staff were asking this current council for this approval, noting the project has already been delayed by the pandemic.
A business case which included that preliminary planning work at a cost of $750,000 was put forward in early 2020, but that work did not get underway until late last year because of the pandemic.
Councillor Mike O’Reilly says the expansion to the Battle Street RCMP detachment has been a long time coming.
“I believe it was under the stewardship of Mayor [Peter] Milobar and council at the time to develop the North Shore community policing office which really removed the pressure, or at least gave us some time, the better part of a decade to get us to where we are now,” he said.
“We need to keep up with the times and what we have supported as a council. There are going to be these sort of requirements and I’m more than happy to support this.”
Councillor Arjun Singh also spoke in favour of the request during Tuesday’s council meeting.
“I really do support this as well,” he added. “I think the building we have now for the RCMP downtown is well past its time. It has got this weird sort of spaces. I’ve been there a few times, it definitely needs a refresh and a new addition.”
The City’s Civic Operations Director, Jen Fretz, told NL News, that the proposed expansion would serve the city’s policing needs for the next 15 years by doubling the size of the downtown detachment.
“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,” Fretz said. “We would be waiting until the new council was sworn in to bring that forward but if this current council wishes, we could more forward with detailed design work and avoid any delay.”
“For $4.75 million…we can 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.”
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 also noted that moving ahead with the detailed design work now could save up to $7.1 million on the overall construction estimate.
Singh also questioned what the project could do to the city’s debt load moving forward, given that the proposed downtown arts centre is “still on the books.”
Planning and Procurement Manager, David Hallinan, noted the City of Kamloops has $40 million in debt in 2022, which is expected to drop to about $25 million by the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
“We’re starting to see a good return coming back into the amount of debt we’re carrying,” Hallinan said, noting the city has the ability to carry up to $500 million in debt, but said that is not a figure staff would ever endorse reaching.
“This $4.75 million ask does not tie the hands of the next council,” Fretz told NL News. “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.
