Kamloops city council is calling on the B.C. Government’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to commit to funding capital projects.

It comes as the Ministry released the Kamloops Area Transportation Strategy, which identified several priorities including upgrades through the Highway 1 corridor in Valleyview, but no funding or timelines.

Councillor Mike O’Reilly says there have been issues with that highway corridor going back decades.

“There has been no significant capital investment in the Valleyview corridor for a very long time,” O’Reilly said, on NL Mornings. “That is something that we’ve been asking for and pounding the drum, so for yesterday to come in with a very high level concept with really nothing to it.”

“It was frustrating.”

O’Reilly says he was concerned by the “vague language” used to describe the “need for improved efficiency of highway traffic through Valleyview,” as Kamloops is an important transportation hub.

“If we zoom out and look at the Trans Canada Highway and the rail lines, everything that comes in through the Port of Vancouver comes through the city of Kamloops, whether its by truck or by rail,” O’Reilly said. “The first traffic light from Horseshoe Bay in Vicars on the Trans Canada Highway.”

“Efficiency, to me, is investment – and significant capital investment – on that stretch, and not just temporary, band-aid solutions.”

In all, there were 10 priority projects under four categories that were identified in the Kamloops Area Transportation Strategy, as pictured below.

Scott Cramer, the project manager for the Kamloops Area Transportation Strategy, said the data gathered during a lengthy public input process will feed into the “broader, provincial capital planning process.”

He also told City Council that just two of the projects – the East Shuswap Road and wayfinding studies – have provincial dollars committed.

Councillor Katie Neustaeter said residents in Kamloops are “tired of waiting” for provincial investment in transportation infrastructure.

“It took someone dying a horrendous death on East Shuswap Road to begin to get funding to fix that,” Neustaeter said. “The warnings had come over and over and over for years, just like in Valleyview. The disproportionate number of ICBC claims that come out of that specific location is ridiculous.”

When asked if there was a timeline, Cramer said addressing traffic congestion through the Valleyview corridor and right turn on and off Highway 5 and River Street would be “shorter-term announcements” though the other issues identified could be 10 to 15 years away.

The shorter-term announcement though could be as many as five years away, he said.

Cramer did note that his staff would do their best to recommend and prioritize things through this strategy, which also heard that the Vicars Road intersection “is the biggest concern in the region.”

“And that’s kind of where we sit right now,” Cramer said.

“There’s going to be things going on in the background in the ministry, which we can try to push different things through, whether it’s interim opportunities such as signage, lighting and things of that nature through general maintenance contracts. But for the larger capital investments, I don’t have a timeline for those.”

City Council voted unanimously to send a letter to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, asking what its plans are for some of the major capital projects in the area.

“I think that probably next time, you might want to bring a bigger team, maybe some executives who can answer some questions,” Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson told Cramer, noting it seemed to him that council had to lobby harder to get the message through through the Ministry.

“I think we’ve got to work together. I think you hear loud and clear on what’s happening around here.”

You can find more information about the Kamloops Area Transportation Strategy here.