Photo: Castanet

A Community Services vehicle parked at the McArthur Island Sport and Event Centre on Kamloops' North Shore.

A collaborative first responder approach appears to be reducing some types of emergency calls along the North Shore’s Tranquille corridor.

Kamloops council’s safety and security committee heard Thursday that Kamloops Fire Rescue and police have tracked a reduction in calls through the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same time last year.

Fire Chief Ken Uzeloc said there’s been a “dramatic drop” in calls for service for certain Kamloops neighbourhoods, including downtown, Valleyview and the North Shore.

According to KFR’s statistics, firefighters logged 185 calls for service in the 100-block to 700-block stretch of Tranquille Road, down from 215 recorded over the same period last year.

Ten burning complaints were made in that time, down from 25 the previous year.

"I would attribute to the ongoing work and the proactive patrols of the [City of Kamloops] Community Services Officers that are out there, engaging and finding those camps and doing the education and consulting of what they are allowed to do in the camps and what they're not allowed to do,” Uzeloc said.

KFR medical calls were down significantly in Valleyview, on Victoria Street and on West Victoria Street, and saw a slight increase along Tranquille Road — up six, from 139 to 145.

“We've seen an increase in the number of medical calls in that Tranquille corridor to Pathways and Spero House, where there is an agency who is providing services,” Uzeloc said, referencing a newly-opened shelter and a supportive housing facility.

However he noted instead of having spread out calls, these vulnerable residents are sheltered in a supportive environment and emergency help is sought “when they actually truly need the call.”

“From a Kamloops Fire Rescue perspective, we're quite pleased with the work that's happened amongst the three groups — four groups, if you count the social agencies — in reducing the call volumes and our request for service in those particular areas,” Uzeloc said.

Police calls down, CSOs up

Kamloops RCMP Supt. Jeff Pelley said police recorded 626 calls originating from the Tranquille corridor in the first few months of 2025 — down significantly from 1,893 in 2024.

The data included calls for non-criminal code related matters, like reporting a suspicious occurrence, and criminal code related files like theft or mischief.

“There's been a substantial reduction in criminal and non-criminal calls,” Pelley said.

He attributed that to a joint effort being undertaken throughout the commercial corridor. City Community Services Officers are being called to handle incidents, which are forwarded to police if the matter turns out to be criminal.

“It's a substantial reduction — and we still need to data mine that a little bit further. But those are the first set of tiers that we're seeing in the first instance on this collaborative approach throughout the corridor,” Pelley said.

Meanwhile, Will Beatty, the city’s community services manager, noted CSO patrols of the Tranquille corridor were up nearly 50 per cent — 736 this year and 503 in the same period last year.

Of this year's total, 231 were self generated, meaning CSOs proactively noticed an issue while patrolling and logged the incident themselves instead of the matter being reported by a member of the public.

“Being able to be in that Tranquille corridor in the overnight hours showcases our commitment to businesses and the collaboration with the RCMP [and] our business partners around the understanding of what a criminal event is versus a non-criminal event,” Beatty said.

Advocating for a day space

Beatty said he’d like to see a day space established in the area, because it’s difficult to have vulnerable people move along the corridor without a place to go in the daylight hours.

Uzeloc agreed, saying nobody wants to be locked in their home 24/7 — including people staying in a shelter.

“Not having that space there on the North Shore is going to allow those people to flow out and then start to go into those old habits of finding nooks, finding entrance ways, to shelter in or to accumulate in,” he said, adding additional beds for people sleeping rough are also needed.

Carmin Mazzotta, the city’s acting community and culture director, said conversations about establishing a day space conversation are “very live,” but there is no identified site for such a facility.

“I don't think necessarily we'll see a social agency step forward with an application to do that at this time,” he said.

A committee formed to establish a North Shore support space for vulnerable people last year advocated to the province for day space funding.

Last year, two year-round day spaces closed, including The Mustard Seed Kamloops’ outreach centre site, and The Loop, which operated on Tranquille Road.

As these sites closed, the City of Kamloops said it was finalizing a property purchase for a North Shore space planned to offer shelter, meals, storage and supports. However, no announcement was made.

A permit for a seasonal, outdoor day space on West Victoria Street was issued by Kamloops city council last month.