EDITORIAL – AAP now certain to be a major civic election campaign issue
Artist’s rendering of proposed new RCMP building. (City of Kamloops)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
IT’S NOW GUARANTEED that the Alternative Approval Process will be a major issue in this October’s civic election in Kamloops.
When the matter of getting taxpayer approval to spend up to $160 million for a new RCMP building came up at this week’s committee of the whole meeting, a couple of councillors including Nancy Bepple employed the interesting rationale that putting the matter to a referendum along with the council elections would be too confusing for people.
So, it seems, Kamloops voters are therefore incapable of voting on borrowing a bunch of money on the same day that they vote for the next council. With that kind of reasoning, we would never again put forward a referendum at the same time as an election in order to save on costs of a stand-alone.
Keep in mind that if an AAP fails, the City still has the option of then putting the question to a full referendum.
Councillors also used other time-worn rationales for using an AAP, including that the RCMP are demanding a new building, that there’s not enough time to get a referendum together in time for the Oct. 17 election, and that the process has been used here and elsewhere for other projects.
And then there was Coun. Dale Bass with her recurring rant against “angry” people who disagree with whatever the council does.
But Coun. Bill Sarai said the AAP method is unpopular because people don’t understand it, and they don’t understand it because it hasn’t been explained well enough.
Coun. Katie Neustaeter also pushed back on the APP, saying there’s been plenty of time to set up a referendum, that council needs to listen to the public on the unpopularity of AAPs, and that the $160 million ask (up $10 million from initial estimates) is too big for an AAP.
“I would agree a hundred per cent,” said Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson in a rare moment of agreement with Neustaeter.
But back to Bepple, who believes it’s better to keep the issue of the RCMP building separate from elections. If she wants the new building, and the AAP, to be somehow divorced from the minds of candidates and voters during the election campaign, she’s going to be very much disappointed.
The AAP, which will be employed sometime next year, is now absolutely going to become an election issue. Maybe that will serve to better inform the public about it, but candidates will have to be ready to address it on the hustings.
By the way, councillors voting in favour of putting the issue to an AAP were Kelly Hall, Bass, Bepple, Margot Middleton and Mike O’Reilly. Opposed were Sarai, Neustaeter, Hamer-Jackson and Stephen Karpuk.
Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, writes for the Kamloops Chronicle and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and was a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Enough has been done and written about this most awful City’s council in the last four years. Tax increases and a city that certainly is not better off than it was four years ago. While I would suggest let the RCMP build their own building as they said they would, I am also once again pointing to the senior administrators and their questionable approaches to manage the public purse including open and honest accountability and influence on council. Reading the many comments made over the last four years by many members of the general population I can categorically state that very many people are just as capable to provide good insights and add relevant information to any debate. That’s valuable and it should not be discouraged nor dismissed but it did happen that it was/is dismissed and discouraged.
The APP has been used only because they know voters apathy would get the results they want. That is absolutely no good governance!
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Wow! Nancy Bepple (and others?) think that Kamloops voters are too stupid to vote for city councillors and on a money issue at the same time. Dale Bass is convinced that she and her colleagues know what’s best for us and we should just shut up and let them do whatever they, our betters, decide for us. Bill Sarai is convinced that Kamloopsians don’t like AAP’s simply because we don’t understand them. What arrogance! This group is truly amazing. And not in a good way. What this City Council does not seem to grasp is that getting less than 10% of a voting population saying “NO” to a spending request is not the same as getting APPROVAL for spending.
The borrowing/spending for a new RCMP headquarters is both a more nuanced and at the same time, a more straightforward borrowing issue. An RCMP HQ is a contractual requirement. Borrowing $160K (already increased from $150k) requires citizen approval. Whether via an AAP or a referendum. Surely the citizens of Kamloops understand this and would vote in favour of the spending. And would’ve likely prioritized it over the already approved high spending on frills. Why have Council delayed getting formal approval and made this such a convoluted issue? Why hasn’t Council found a way to make it happen before now? AAP or referendum is a detail. Plain and simple…they prioritized the PAC/KCA and multiplex. Nice-to-haves, not essentials.
The current council has decided to hold an AAP on the RCMP HQ sometime in 2027. There will be a new City Council in place then – hopefully with all new faces. What if they prefer a referendum over an AAP? Are they locked in to the July decision of their predecessors or will they go straight to a referendum? Not adding a referendum to the October election ballot is a wasted opportunity. It adds extra costs. And further delays getting a new HQ built.
Of course there’s an additional issue: What happens if, for some bizarre reason, either (or both) the AAP or a referendum says NO to borrowing for a new HQ? Where will the money come from for this contractually required build? Will the RCMP build it themselves, with the city responsible for paying 100 per cent of the costs? If that’s the case, I’m surprised the RCMP hasn’t already taken that route. It would certainly be quicker!
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According to some studies, people often expect others to share their level of intelligence. This may be why Coun. Bepple believes that most voters will be confused by having a referendum question to answer at the same time that they elect a new city council.
As for Coun. Sarai’s contention that electors don’t understand AAPs. We all understand that our council seems to use AAPs to railroad the electorate into “approving” contentious borrowing issues.
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I can only imagine what the members of the RCMP think of the gang of 8. The RCMP should have been ahead of the Multiplex and maybe even ahead of the PAC as a priority for public funding of a new HQ building. Instead, they opted for getting a pat on the back and a few smiling photos showing off their Build Kamloops group.
Watch for a sign that reads “RCMP before multiplex” held by a guy who takes a stand for what he believes.
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The fact that city council is now in crisis mode regarding a new RCMP building is entirely their own fault.
The minutes of the Development Committee meetings throughout the previous term were concerned with only 2 issues– greenhouse gas reduction and a new RCMP building.
However, the councillors mutinied in March 2023 and dissolved all the mayor’s standing committees because the mayor had changed the membership and leadership of some of them. He had removed Mike O’Reilly as chair of the Development Committee b/c he feared that as a developer, O’Reilly was in a conflict of interest.
The councillors replaced the Development Committee with the Build Kamloops Committee, with O’Reilly as chair. From that time, the RCMP building plans were abandoned and the focus was on a new PAC and arena multiplex.
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