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Legal challenge to Build Kamloops AAP in B.C. Supreme Court this week

AAP challenge hits court

A legal challenge that seeks to halt the largest capital project in Kamloops history will be heard Wednesday by a B.C. Supreme Court judge.

In October, Kathrine Wunderlich filed a court petition seeking an order to overturn two council-adopted bylaws — one of which authorizes the city to borrow up to $140 million to build a performing arts centre, and the other up to $135 million for an arena multiplex and future design work.

Wunderlich’s petition alleged the city failed to follow a lawful and transparent process as it carried out an alternative approval process this summer.

She argued the city used an “improper” method to calculate the threshold of electors needed to reject the borrowing proposals and failed to properly notify the community.

“They didn’t include the citizens,” she told Castanet after serving city staff with legal documents at an October council meeting.

The city filed a response to the legal challenge in November, saying the requirements for an AAP are set out in detail in the Community Charter and were followed to the letter.

City hall paused its Build Kamloops working groups while the matter goes before the court.

In a December interview, Coun. Mike O’Reilly, chair of council’s Build Kamloops committee, said this turn of events has “taken a little bit of the wind out of the sails,” but added the matter is playing through the courts as it must and he expected a positive result.

“We feel confident we’ve brought it the best way forward to the taxpayer, the most fiscally responsible way to do that, and using a fully democratic process that’s been in place for [the] better part of 60 years,” he said.

Affidavits on both sides

A number of affidavits have been filed by parties on either side, totalling hundreds of pages. Castanet Kamloops has reviewed the affidavits.

Some people submitted signed forms attesting they were not notified by the City of Kamloops about the AAP, but instead they became aware of the process through social media or conversations with others.

Wunderlich’s affidavit includes printouts of webpages, including Statistics Canada and the City of Kamloops website, along with screenshots of Facebook posts and comments, and copies of emails sent between city staff and members of the public.

One email exchange printed and included in the affidavit includes a woman emailing council to request exactly 8,713 copies of the electoral response forms for each bylaw — the threshold of forms needed to reject the borrowing proposal and force a referendum.

“For the sake of public awareness, and so that all city residents are able to make an informed decision, I would like to ask if 1) 8,713 electoral response forms for each bylaw could be made available to me for distribution to residents. 2) Funding could be considered to assist with costs associated in reaching the segment of the city population without access to the internet,” the email reads.

Coun. Margot Middleton responded, saying she had checked with city staff and the answer was “no to both.”

Copies of the electoral response forms were available online and at city hall for pickup during the window of time allotted for the AAP.

One page shows an email exchange between an individual and David Hallinan, City of Kamloops corporate services director, who provided answers to the person’s questions about municipal debt limits. A handwritten note underneath one of Hallinan’s responses says “this complete info not available to the public.”

There are also screenshots of what appear to be Facebook messages between individuals offering to drop off AAP elector response forms to others, or providing instructions on how to submit the documents.

“If we drop off a fee [few] extra copies do you think you might have others you know who would be interested in signing them as well?,” one message reads.

Another page is simply a screenshot of an image, posted on Facebook group When Bad Things Happen in Kamloops, which shows the heads of eight city councillors superimposed on a movie poster created for Quentin Tarantino movie The Hateful Eight.

Affidavits were filed by city staff, including corporate officer Maria Mazzotta and Kristen Rodrigue, communications supervisor, for the City of Kamloops' response to the legal challenge.

They included details about population estimates used to arrive at the number of elector response forms needed to reject borrowing proposals, and a chart showing research done to compare AAP methods used by three other municipalities.

The city affidavits also include screenshots of social media pages and news articles discussing the AAP and borrowing bylaws.



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