LETTER – Province needs to be sure it isn’t holding up civic govt projects

RE: Province’s role in timely development in the city

Last week the City of Kamloops highlighted that work to build a second permanent access route to Juniper Ridge neighbourhood has been delayed to at least 2026. Originally the second permanent route was expected to open in 2025, but the City highlights that while their applications went into the province on March 1, 2022, they continue to wait to get access to do the more significant site work required to complete the project.

In the same week, the Tranquille on the Lake developer raised concerns about the delays on their 2,000-home development at the Tranquille Lake property. The proponent cites the process within the Agriculture Land Commission, while the Ministry of Water, Lands and Resources Stewardship outlines concerns with the proponent’s application to surface water license submitted in July 15, 2021. This project has previously been approved through the City’s Neighbourhood Plan and Official Community Plan process.

While the provincial government has set in motion new legislation to circumvent municipal bylaws in an effort to build housing more quickly, it is interesting to note how issues at the provincial government level can work to hold up projects or developments that are important to a community.

In the mid-2000s, I worked as part of the fast-track team in the Thompson-Okanagan. We were supported by the Victoria based “red tape” team. Our objective was to move major developments along in a timely fashion, working to ensure local governments “didn’t hold them up”. However, what we quickly learned was how often project timelines depended on the provincial government itself to complete their own processes. The issues were often provincial regulatory challenges or resourcing of specific provincial agencies. After a couple of years, the fast-track team quietly disappeared.

To avoid making the same mistakes as in the past, the provincial government needs to determine what the working partnership is going to be with local governments moving forward priority community projects. Further, the province needs to understand how important their own participation is in the development process and ensure they are prepared to commit the same effort and resources to the development process as they demand local governments commit themselves.

RANDY SUNDERMAN

Editor’s Note: Randy Sunderman is the Green Party candidate in the Kamloops Centre riding in the upcoming provincial election. ArmchairMayor.ca will accept letters from candidates who have received nominations from their parties if they are on topics of interest to the community rather than simply campaign plugs.