LETTER – The misuse of the Alternative Approval Process by Kamloops council

Democracy only works when Kamloops City council elected to serve actually listens. Listening is not a box to check, it is the foundation of trust between citizens and their government.

This City council has shut down public enquires at weekly meetings and has now used the Alternative Approval Process (AAP) to borrow $275 million in this term alone with plans to use it three more times to borrow an additional $200 million, for a total of close to $500,000.000.00 (half a billion dollars).

The Alternative Approval Process (AAP) was never meant to be a political shortcut. It was designed as a narrow tool, allowing municipalities to act quickly on urgent matters when delay could harm the community. But today, Kamloops City council are exploiting it as a back door to push through costly projects. Instead of securing broad public consent, they rely on voter inaction knowing that silence will be counted as approval.

Worse still, these projects often stretch years beyond the four-year mandate citizens have granted. This means one council can commit taxpayers to financial obligations that future councils and future voters never had a chance to endorse. That is not democracy; that is governance by loophole.

When elected leaders avoid open debate and meaningful consultation, they weaken the very system they were entrusted to uphold. If a project is truly necessary and widely supported, it can withstand the scrutiny of direct public engagement. Using the AAP to sidestep that process is not efficiency, it is avoidance.  And, Kamloops City council is going to use the AAP to push through an additional $200 million without public meetings to examine if this is a good expenditure of taxpayer dollars.

The message is clear: democracy demands listening, not silence. Council should return the AAP to its intended role, stop using it as a shield against accountability.

A referendum by voters is democratic.

GARRY DAVIES,
Kamloops