
The old Tourism Kamloops building near Aberdeen Mall could become the site of a year-round regional support hub for evacuees, starting next year.
Community Services Manager Will Beatty says the hope is to use that space at 1290 Trans-Canada Highway as a training hub for ESS volunteers, noting there are high levels of burnout because of the City’s role as a host community during past disasters.
“We invite a lot of local partners to training. It’ll be a space that we can do so,” Beatty said. “It’s a space that is properly equipped with projectors and proper screens, easy access, lots of parking, access to food and entertainment per se at the mall that is across the street.”
“We’re looking forward to see it move forward in 2025.”
Beatty told Radio NL the facility is also set to become the new ESS reception centre in Kamloops, taking over from McArthur Island, which has been used as a reception centre for weeks on end in recent years, given the frequency and severity of disasters.
“We are a host community in Kamloops. Communities are going to rely on us in the Central Interior as a hub to be able to come to, and we want to still be able to process those folks but also with the understanding that there is a brand that the city of Kamloops has to maintain, which is Canada’s Tournament Capital,” Beatty added.
“We’re showing compassion. We’re showing that the volunteers are there, we’re just looking for alternate space so we don’t have to tie up our civic facilities.”
Beatty says the City, the TNRD, Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, and the Provincial Government are all working together on setting up this new regional support hub.
“We don’t want to rush anything,” Beatty said, when asked why the opening is scheduled for 2025 and not 2024. “Is it something that could be done, yes. It likely could be done. But if we rushed this, it’s likely going to fail. Evacuees are going to be affected and we don’t want to risk that out this year.”
“A lot of the hold up has to do with staff capacity, logistics of the actual facility itself.”
Beatty said the City presented its proposal to Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma at last year’s UBCM convention in Vancouver.
Prior to the space being used for emergency support services, the City needs the Ministry of Forests to sign off on a reverter clause application as Beatty says the building is currently intended to be used for “interactive tourism delivery.”
“We’re making sure the building is in a proper state of affairs,” Beatty said. “Its got a sani dump and Tesla charging stations so its a highly used facility per se – the space itself not necessarily the building – but yes, we don’t see any hurdles with gaining reverter clause with the Ministry of Forests.”
“Tourism Kamloops was also operating out of that facility and we were trying to work on a smooth transition so the impact on Tourism Kamloops was minimized. Once that reverter clause is put in, I don’t expect any holdups from the ministry.”