Kamloops’ latest city council candidate is calling for a new industrial park and a referendum on the proposed Ajax mine as part of his platform for the Nov. 15 civic election.
Mike O’Reilly added his name yesterday (Sept. 15) to the growing list of declared candidates.
The former business-attraction manager for Venture Kamloops said he wants the city to be able to not just attract, but to keep businesses stationed here — something he said was a struggle during his time with Kamloops’ economic-development arm.
“No sooner did they arrive here and they either turned around and left the city or they invested just outside municipal boundaries,” O’Reilly said.
The main complaint he heard from business owners was a lack of industrial land, which O’Reilly proposing to fix with a new industrial park built in the city’s southwest sector.
O’Reilly also wants to see the city itself invest more on Kamloops’ North Shore by expanding some of its departmental headquarters to the other side of the river.
“Fifty per cent of the population, or close to there, lives on the North Shore, but only 10 per cent of municipal employees work on the North Shore,” O’Reilly said, arguing moving a city department to the area would do more to improve the neighbourhood than past city-beautification campaigns.
“Businesses are attracted to areas where there are a large amount of stable, good-paying jobs,” he said.
“We’re reviewing our [official community plan] in Kamloops and, in our OCP, it states that municipal-government jobs be located in the downtown of Kamloops or the southwest of Kamloops.
“That’s the first piece that needs to change.”
On the subject of KGHM’s Ajax gold and copper mine, proposed for south of Aberdeen, O’Reilly didn’t state a firm position, saying he believes in “science, not theory.”
But, he added, he wants to see the city do its own public engagement on the project, in the model of Fort St. John’s work with the community on the Site C dam, with a referendum to follow.
“If we’re spending taxpayer dollars on a project like the Tournament Capital Centre or a performing-arts centre, we’ll be going to referendum because we don’t leave it up to councillors to make that decision,” he said.
“Yet, a billion-dollar project in our backyard, we’re letting people have their own personal opinion.”
O’Reilly is the city’s 13th candidate for one of eight council seats. Also in the running are Bob Dieno, Annette Glover, Peter Kerek, Andrew Miller, Dieter Dudy and incumbent councillors Marg Spina, Tina Lange, Donovan Cavers, Arjun Singh, Ken Christian, Pat Wallace and Nelly Dever.
Running for mayor is incumbent Peter Milobar and performance artist Elaine Sedgman, in the guise of Mr. Open Pitbelly.
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