The mayor of Kamloops has put an economic recovery task force in motion.

Ken Christian has picked a 15-person committee which includes local businesses, business leaders and politicians.

Council members will also liaise with local groups, and more information from those discussions will come forward later this summer.

“I don’t want this to be a masters thesis dissertation. I want to see a month of talking to those groups. I would see the task force group getting together and congealing their thoughts, and then accepting that input from you and having something ready for August.”

He says the task force is not meant to be long term, as it has been brought in to address issues with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m hopeful that we can start back in the fall with a positive attitude towards economy recovery and renewal… The only thing I put in here is I want to convene the task force late in the year to see if we are on track. And I put that in there because my experience, limited as it is with pandemics, is they come in waves, and I am concerned about a second or tertiary wave and what that might look like, and whether or not there would be some secondary adjustments.”

Christian says he thinks “we’re getting close” to think about the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and how communities like Kamloops come out of this.

“I think that after the dust settles and we start to see some leniency in getting the economy back – things like part-time schooling for elementary students, elective surgeries and an increased capacity in the utilization of the hospital, then I think we can start to have a pretty good handle on what the residual impacts are going to be.”