Hamer-Jackson sought to pause arts centre and arena multiplex development for a year, or until a new council could provide direction

A motion from Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson to immediately halt the development of the Dufferin arena multiplex and Kamloops Centre for the Arts has failed.

The mayor’s motion called for a pause on development for one year, or until a new council provides further direction. The motion was roundly defeated by council.

Coun. Kelly Hall, who chairs the Build Kamloops select committee, came prepared with his estimation of how much delaying the projects could cost.

“I want to point out some of the damage a motion like this could bring to the community,” Hall said.

Hall laid out a range of costs he anticipated the projects facing due to a one-year delay. He said taxpayers could be on the hook for an additional $38.8 million due to cancellation costs and inflation as the projects are on hold.

To make his point, Hall pointed to the delays caused by the alternative approval process lawsuit the city faced, and won, in 2025, saying that suit alone cost the city more than $7 million “because one individual thought in their own interest and put themselves before the community, which I think is wrong.”

Hall said he is confident in council’s decision to approve the projects and pointed to the years of work that led up to its approval. He said he was focused on the feedback from “people of the community that care for the community,” and not “those small interest groups that have enough information to be just about dangerous.”

Coun. Nancy Bepple argued some of the premises of Hamer-Jackson’s motion were “extremely vague” and “inaccurate.”  The motion suggested Kamloops taxpayers and city finances may be affected for “decades.”

Bepple said tax increases from previous large capital projects were much larger on a per-capita basis. She said when council approved Riverside Coliseum in 1988, that resulted in an inflation-adjusted tax increase of $440 over five years for the average property owner.

When council approved the TCC Field House and McArthur Island upgrades in 2003, residents saw a $378 (inflation adjusted) increase over three years.

“[The arena multiplex and arts centre] will result, for the average property tax payer, $133 more in taxes over five years — compared to $378 for the TCC upgrades, or $440 for the coliseum — $133? That’s a bargain,” Bepple said.

“It seems that the mayor is willing to throw out statement after statement without even taking the time to read our annual report. I just got all of these numbers by going to the very documents we are responsible to look at for guidance,” Bepple said.

Hamer-Jackson repeatedly defended his motion as being the will of the people — citing hundreds of emails he said he had received in support of his motion or in opposition to the projects.

Coun. Mike O’Reilly suggested some of the support for the motion was due to misinformation being spread online.

“There has been a lot of information spread through individuals, through online sources and shared multiple times, with factually incorrect information,” he said, pointing to one claim that performing arts centres are no longer being built — but O’Reilly said there are currently four, in British Columbia alone, that are currently looking to be built.

O’Reilly laid the blame for said misinformation at the feet of the mayor, telling him he “creates instability by providing misinformation, spreading it and only sharing 10 percent of the information.”

“I can suggest that if the messaging was, ‘We could delay it, but it would cost $40 million more’ — there might be some different conversations around this,” he said.

O’Reilly said the city has also missed out on “millions and millions” of sponsorship dollars from corporations looking to sponsor facilities.

Coun. Katie Neustaeter said the unpredictability of the mayor has also caused philanthropists to reconsider donating to major projects.

“To watch the process happen, for everything to be right, and for you to try to tank it again, is so discouraging for the community of Kamloops, which has spoken loud and clear about what we need and what we want,” Neustaeter said.