Kamloops city councillors and staff standing pictured at the 2024 UBCM convention with Transportation Minister Rob Fleming, along with a student who joined the Kamloops representatives.

Image Credit: X/Nancy Bepple

Every year, government officials across BC gather for the Union of BC Municipalities convention. Local leaders get their chance to bend the ears of ministers and staff from Victoria.

Like most every year, members of Kamloops city council took their biggest asks to the provincial government at the conference in Vancouver, but the absence of Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson was glaring.

"I'm not the voice of the city. What's the point of going and in sitting there and wasting taxpayer dollars?" Hamer-Jackson said.

The mayor, who said he would "refuse to be blocked" as he pursued the issues he campaigned on, said he stayed in Kamloops believing he would merely sit on the sidelines at the conference.

The rest of council has 12 meetings booked with various ministers as they try to convince provincial leaders to invest in issues front and centre for Kamloops, aside from Coun. Margot Middleton who could not attend because of a pre-booked family vacation.

"It's the number one way to advocate for your community," Coun. Mike O'Reilly said, speaking to iNFOnews.ca from the Vancouver event.

They'll be meeting with ministers to work on issues like making changes to the Trans-Canada Highway path through Valleyview and efforts to have bylaw officers recognized as peace officers under provincial legislation, he said when asked for examples of council's priorities this year.

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"It's disappointing, but nonetheless that doesn't mean we're going to stop advocating," O'Reilly said. "Frankly the mayor is supposed to be the number one advocate for your community and this is the number one place for advocacy... but we can't let this slow us down."

Ron Mattiussi, local government consultant and former Kelowna city manager, said it's not unheard of for mayors to skip out on the convention, adding that they often make sure constituents know they're doing so.

"A number of mayors from time to time have said it's a big waste of time," he said. "Often it's mayors that want to be viewed as different, and so often they'll attack going there as a waste of money."

The convention often hosts presentations from other local governments, but those from the provincial government can feel like they're not worth going as the province "sells" it's programs to local officials. It's the meetings with other leaders, provincial or local, that make it worth the time, Mattiussi said.

Looking at Hamer-Jackson's choice not to go, he said the situation is "sad."

"It's sort of operating outside the norms," he said. "The role of the mayor is to speak on behalf of council, not to have their own agenda. Mayors have their own vision, but in our system they can only do it through cooperation. They lead council, but council has to want to follow them."

How provincial leaders are responding to Kamloops officials knowing the seemingly unending strife between Hamer-Jackson and the rest of city hall isn't clear, but the mayor did say ministers have now stopped responding to his phone calls.

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"It sends a very clear signal to ministries there isn't unanimity here," Mattiussi said. "In the end majority rules so it's more symbolic than real, but I'm sure it makes them a little wary because they are dealing with a situation which is not operating as normal."

The upcoming election looms over the convention. Even if the BC NDP maintains a government this fall, ministers will likely be shuffled to new roles. Despite the upcoming cabinet changes, many ministry staff members will likely remain.

Mattiussi said it's meeting and networking with the staff members at the conference that can be most important.

"I think the networking is very important. I think networking with provincial staff, both formally and informally, is really important," he said. "The minister's going to sit in a room with hundreds of people coming through, but it's really the staff who are going to work on the problem, so I don't think people should underestimate the importance of that."

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Looking back on past years at the convention, O'Reilly pointed to two recent lobbying efforts that came to fruition just in the past year. First is the long-awaited cancer centre for which more detailed plans were just confirmed in January and the other is Housing Minister Ravi Khalon's recent announcements in Kamloops this summer.

That included multiple new housing projects, but key for O'Reilly was the opening of the Columbia Precinct for housing, a large chunk of government property downtown that the councillor said he's been advocating to get redeveloped for six years.

For Hamer-Jackson's part, he said ministers know the issues he has advocated for himself. They now don't answer his phone calls, he said.

While he lamented that council told other government officials across BC that he no longer speaks for city hall, Hamer-Jackson largely focused on one issue when discussing what he's advocated the province for.

Hamer-Jackson with housing minister Ravi Khalon at the 2023 convention.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Reid Hamer-Jackson

"Last year, me and Ravi (Khalon) had a chat and my biggest thing is I want a forensic audit of all the harm reduction-slash-drug houses," he said. "And by the way, they're 15-minute meetings. What do you get in 15 minutes with 10 people in a room? It's a little bit bizarre."

Although he won't let the issue go and says a detailed audit of BC Housing sites would help residents and the community as a whole, he has never been able to win over the rest of council to his side on the issue. Council agreed they would not pursue the matter earlier this term and sent a letter to the province saying as much.

Asked whether he can still be effective while facing the several restrictions placed upon him by the rest of council, Hamer-Jackson said, "this is not going to last."

"You would not believe the support I've got," he added.

Now two years into his term, he has been investigated for bullying city staff, breached staff privacy, leaked confidential documents and has been accused of refusing to sign documents after a council vote. Some of council's actions against him include restrictions on his ability to speak directly to some top level administrators, his salary has been temporarily reduced, he was removed from the regional district and outside government bodies.

He shows no sign or willingness to relent and even held what became a campaign rally at what he said was a "resignation related" announcement.

— This story was updated at 7:52 a.m., Sept. 19, 2024. Reid Hamer-Jackson was incorrectly quoted in an earlier version of this story as saying the UBCM conference was a "waste of time." 

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