LETTER – Council should act like the community’s finance committee

City council’s first responsibility is financial stewardship. In practice, that means council should function primarily as the community’s finance committee, carefully overseeing how public money is taxed, spent, and borrowed.

The present city council of Councillors Neustaeter, Hall, Saria, O’Reilly, Middleton, Karpuk, Bepple, Bass and Hamer-Jackson have failed to carry out their duty like we pay them to do.

In Kamloops, council controls budgets, capital projects, and debt. Now the need for roughly $40 million in short-term borrowing highlights why this role matters. Borrowing can manage cash flow, but interest costs on borrowed money ultimately fall on taxpayers.

Councillors must scrutinize spending, question assumptions, and weigh long-term financial impacts. Core services like policing, fire protection, roads, and water must come before discretionary projects.  They have failed to do this responsibly. Strong financial oversight protects taxpayers and ensures council focuses on its most important duty: responsible management of public money.