As part of supplemental budget items, council has said no, for now, to planning to build a firearms training facility.

It would be specifically for protective services personnel.

Councillor Arjun Singh made a motion to postpone planning, which passed by a narrow 5-4 vote.

Singh says he likes the idea but would rather revisit it with a more thorough business case.

“I think the question becomes, for us as a municipality, the folks who are leaving Kamloops now to go to Chilliwack to get the training and are coming off the watch, is that a big enough negative impact for us to spend this kind of money?”

City staff say it would cost an estimated $8.75 million to build the training facility, and staff say revenues would be significantly greater than operating costs on an annual basis once its built.

Right now, Kamloops sends police to Chilliwack for firearm training, which costs more than $400,000 per year to facilitate.

Protective services director Byron McCorkell says it would be a regional hub for firearm training.

He says it would be used by RCMP for baseline training, regional emergency training and tactical training. It would also be used to train specialized positions within Conservation Officers, Sheriffs, members of the Department of Fisheries and even CN and CP Rail.

“It is intended to do something that is specific to people in the Interior who are required to carry firearms or use long rifles,” McCorkell says. “The intent is to service our people better, so that they are more confident, more capable, and supplement the training that is ongoing with these organizations already throughout the province.

“So everybody who’s listed in there has been spoken to, everybody listed there has given us a letter suggesting they would use the facility. We can’t sign any deals or do any commitments because we can’t go any further until council allows us to proceed with continued planning for doing something in 2024.”

The proposal is now expected to be revisited sometime in 2022.