After a debacle earlier this year, it appears records at the Kamloops land title office could still be relocated.

In a staff email copied to NL News, the Land Title and Survey Authority of B.C. says the plan now is to move documents from Kamloops to Victoria by December of 2021, with the LTSA to move into a new building in Kamloops by January of 2022.

“This new schedule gives us time to gather further advice and feedback from stakeholders on the preservation and accessibility of historic land title records, particularly those related to First Nations,” land titles registrar Larry Blaschuk says in the email.

Kamloops-South MLA Todd Stone says the government needs to reverse the proposal to move records.

“We’ve been calling all along for keeping these historical land title records in Kamloops. There’s absolutely no defensible reason for moving these records out of Kamloops, and in fact there’s all kinds of downsides. First Nations were opposed, local stakeholders were opposed,” Stone says.

“There’s about three or four dozen jobs, mostly in the private sector, that would’ve been impacted by the movement of these records. It’s a short-term pause on moving these documents, but we’re still calling on the government to just reject the idea entirely and keep these documents in Kamloops.”

The LTSA says it will be establishing a historic records advisory committee to undertake consultations, which will include “members recommended by First Nations organizations in B.C. and by the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation.”

Kamloops city council and the Thompson-Nicola Regional District have also opposed the plan to relocate historic documents out of Kamloops. Coun. Mike O’Reilly has said 10,000 square feet worth of documents would be moved, and says people come to Kamloops from all over the Southern Interior and the Kootenays to do research with the documents in that office.