
Kamloops city council has opted to partially defer the hiring of some new RCMP officers this year in a bid to reduce the property tax rate.
Council discussed a number of changes to the 2025 budget during a lengthy committee meeting Tuesday.
Between council’s decisions and other budget adjustments — including updated growth estimates from BC Assessment and identified efficiencies in the city’s capital plan — the provisional tax rate was dropped from 9.67 per cent to 7.49 per cent.
With a 7.49 per cent property tax increase, owners of the average assessed Kamloops residence could expect to pay about $187 more in 2025 than they did the previous year. However, there’s still more discussions ahead before council adopts the final budget and tax rate, including the consideration of supplemental budget items.
David Hallinan, City of Kamloops corporate services director, presented options for council to fully or partially defer the hiring of five additional RCMP members in 2025.
“If we want to have the five additional members, there is a cost associated with that. That is obviously the question that's in front of council today,” Hallinan said.
In 2022, the previous council had approved a plan to hire an additional five RCMP members per year until 2027.
A report prepared for Tuesday’s meeting said since that initiative began, the average cost per member has increased from $192,000 to $244,000. Since 2020, the cost per RCMP member has seen a $64,000 increase.
In 2025, the cost of adding five more officers — including the hiring of associated municipal support staff — would be about $1.5 million.
Hiring partially deferred
Ken Uzeloc, the city’s fire chief and director of protective services, said while Kamloops RCMP Supt. Jeff Pelley does a “fantastic” job in filling these annual positions, generally speaking, the city doesn’t actually welcome its new officers until a year after this funding is approved anyhow.
Some council members said they wanted to see the city fully defer hiring all five officers, while others, including Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson, wanted to stay the course.
“I believe that we need the support of the RCMP for our employees and for our citizens,” Hamer-Jackson said.
Coun. Nancy Bepple said she supported a hiring pause in 2025, noting Kamloops has seen a 21 per cent increase in the number of RCMP officers over five years while the city’s population has increased by about 10 per cent.
“We have more than kept up with the rate of our city's growth,” Bepple said.
One option involved deferring the hire of half of the officers to the latter part of 2025. This would mean that 2026 and 2027 would still see the full five members hired, and the remaining half would be included in the 2028 budget.
“I like the idea of feathering in 50 per cent of the cost into the second half of the budget. Makes a lot of sense to me,” said Coun. Kelly Hall.
While Hamer-Jackson and Bepple were opposed, the motion to partially defer hiring was carried.
Council also instructed staff to prepare an updated rates and fees bylaw related to the city’s development, engineering and sustainability department. Hallinan said staff had identified the city was behind other municipalities with regards to these departmental fees, and this was an opportunity to bring in more revenue.
City staff will also looking at its street parking and transit rates. Hallinan said he didn't believe there’s been a change in street parking rates since before 2000.
‘Substantial jump’ in legal expenses
Council was also asked to add $800,000 to the city’s budget to cover rising legal fees.
Hallinan said while many of the situations were confidential, the recent “substantial jump” in costs could be attributed to the city’s need to respond to employment issues, code of conduct investigations, a legal challenge to the alternative approval process making its way through court, and an increase in the number of people challenging privacy-related redactions in freedom of information requests.
He said the city typically budgets a little more than $500,000 for legal fees. Last year, the bill was $1.6 million.
Hamer-Jackson protested the code of conduct process, saying it’s a “complete waste of money.”
The mayor has been found by independent investigators to have violated the code of conduct three times since it was adopted in 2023.
However, in response to Hamer-Jackson, Hallinan said even if code of conduct costs were subtracted from the total, the city would still require a top-up in funding for its legal fees.
“Honestly, Mr. Mayor, whether it's a code of conduct complaint or is a court filing to quash the AAP, we have to have the availability and the funds to be able to address and respond without putting the corporation at risk or in debt,” Hallinan said.
Council voted 6-3 in favour of adding a reduced amount of $300,000 to boost the legal budget. Hamer-Jackson, Bepple and Coun. Dale Bass were opposed.