Photo: Castanet

Forecasted flatlining enrolment in the Kamloops-Thompson School District has set School Site Acquisition Charges to $0 in the City of Kamloops.

Kamloops developers will no longer be charged for future school site acquisitions on residential builds, but that doesn't mean School District 73's desperate need for more schools has been met.

School site acquisition charges are a per-unit charge collected from new residential developments to help pay for new school sites.

The charges are collected by the City of Kamloops and forwarded to SD73. The fees are not collected in other communities in the school district.

In 2021, the board of education set its rates in the City of Kamloops at $288 per single family unit, $259 per multi family low density unit, $201 per multi family medium and high density unit and a $230 base rate.

On Monday night, trustees voted 8-1 to reduce those fees to $0.

SD73 director of facilities Art McDonald said site acquisition charges are calculated based on enrolment projections. Because SD73 is forecasting flat or potentially declining enrolment over the next decade, the fees can no longer be collected.

"Because the calculations fundamentally start with enrolment increases, because the increases show at zero, that necessitates the charge to go to zero," McDonald said.

Schools still overcapacity

SD73 trustee Shelley Sim questioned why the charges would be set to $0 when SD73 is facing overcapacity issues in its schools.

McDonald said there isn't a good answer to the question, but the ministry has said this is the process the district must follow.

“The SSAC was put in place originally to have the private sector help pay for a portion of new school sites as a result of their development and the increased population and therefore enrolment attached to that development,” he said.

“We recognize that we will still need more space, particularly in the southwest sector of Kamloops, but because the overall number’s trending flat, we have to adjust the charge to suit that.”

Board vice-chair Rhonda Kershaw emphasized that the district was still facing significant space challenges for a number of years into the future.

“This almost makes it look like we don’t have space constraints anymore, but it doesn’t negate the fact that we’ve been running overcapacity in a good portion of our schools for a number of years,” she said.

A flaw in the system?

The SD73 completed three readings and approved the amended to its bylaw in a 8-1 vote, with Sim being the only hold out.

“Not that we can do anything about it, but it’s frustrating the fact that there’s pressures and that it’s falling on deaf ears,” Sim said.

“This is an example of where system change is needed to respond to a community.”

McDonald said a review of the charges isn't typically done annually, the last time being in 2021. But he expects a review will need to be done every year as SD73’s enrolment patterns change.

He said the charge is now $0 but the fee remains on the books, meaning the amount can be increased when enrolment patterns change.