
Unidentified member of the KCBIA CAP Team with members of Kamloops bylaw enforcement
Changes in the policies surrounding the Canada Summer Jobs Program has left the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association scrambling to try to find ways to fund additional CAP-Team members in the months ahead.
Every summer, the Downtown BIA normally hires 6 additional “red shirts” to help patrol the core during the busier months.
However, due to federal policy changes surrounding the Summer Jobs Program, Executive Director Howie Reimer says they were essentially low-balled by Ottawa in their funding request for this year.
“They would only pay half minimum wage, and they wouldn’t pay the MERCs, which is Canada Pension, EI and so forth,” noted Reimer. “We didn’t have that in our budget to pay half.”
Reimer says this change in policy appears to have begun last year, when they put in their initial grant application for the 2022 Summer CAP Team.
“They had been funding 6 positions for 16 weeks,” notes Reimer. “When we applied last year, they were going to give us six positions, but only for 8 weeks.”
The KCBIA is now scrambling to find around 60-thousand dollars to hire the 6 additional CAP Team members for this year, who are tasked with things like needle clean-up and other issues with those on the streets.
“Their main thing is to really help with ambassadorship, helping with the tourists,” said Reimer. “They are boots-on-the-ground. They make people feel safer. They’re not a security team, but any sort of presence [helps].”
Reimer says they are entertaining the idea of approaching the private-sector for potential involvement in their dilemma.
“There’s value there. You’d certainly get a good profile,” argued Reimer. “There might be an opportunity for some private sponsorship for the Summer CAP Team.”
- – With files from Jeff Andreas