The Chief Administrative Officer of the Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD) is supportive of a move to review the regional district’s boundaries to see whether changes should be made.
Scott Hildebrand says staff will do their due diligence with the working group proposed by TNRD Director, and Kamloops City Councillor, Mike O’Reilly.
“At this point, it is certainly just an exploration but if there are things that come out that maybe recommend some changes, it’s certainly something we would take back to the board,” Hildebrand told NL News.
“Staff are aligned and able to work with [O’Reilly] as we move forward through the rest of this year into next year.”
O’Reilly tells NL News the working group – which will be made up of a maximum of 12 TNRD directors, including at least three municipal and three electoral-area directors – will go into the process with an open mind.
“The three things that I think are on the table are one, splitting the regional district up into two or multiple regional districts,” he said.
“Second option coming back would be potentially some electoral areas amalgamating with other districts that make more sense for them, and the third option is we come back and say, ‘this is the most effective level of governance and no changes are recommended.'”
Only directors Stephen Quinn, Carol Schaffer and Jan Polderman were opposed to moving forward with the review. Recommendations are now expected to come to the board next year, with any changes potentially taking effect before the 2026 municipal election.
“This is a very long process. It is not something that is going to happen overnight, nor should it be something we want to try and rush,” O’Reilly added.
“It is something that the directors voted on, that they decided is something we should explore, and so the intent is to come up with an idea or a plan of what the board of directors feel is best, and then they take that to the province and the province considers it and goes from there.”
O’Reilly says he brought forward the idea for a review noting the TNRD’s external borders haven’t been looked at since it was drawn in the late 1960s. He said it was important to look at the boundaries as the regional district is growing.
“The regional district boundaries have been not been realigned since our incorporation in 1968. However, if you look at the federal government they are mandated to actually look at their boundaries every ten years,” he said.
“It is not unheard of to look at these boundaries, it is just not something that the regional district has done since incorporation.”
Added Hildebrand, “it does take a long time for something like to happen and in order to do our due diligence, we just wanted to make sure that the timeline made sense and I think your assumption is probably correct.”
“It is going to take time before any boundaries, if at all, are changed.”
