Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP-elect Frank Caputo was already on the road last week touring his new riding while meeting with government and his constituents along the way.
Over the past week he has met with Barriere, Clearwater, Clinton and 100 Mile House where he has promised to service all of his communities within the riding in person as much as is possible based on the amount of time that he will be in Ottawa as our representative.
The Barriere visit took place in council chambers at the District of Barriere with just a small contingent of community representatives in attendance. Mayor Ward Stamer, Councilor Donna Kibble, Barriere CAO Bob Payette, Barriere Fire Chief Ashley Wholgemuth, Barriere Corporate Office Tasha Buchanan, TNRD Area ‘O’ Director and Barriere Chamber of Commerce President Bill Kershaw, Chamber of Commerce manager and local business owner Leanne Hamblin, Lower North Thompson Community Forest Society Chair Harley Wright, and the president of the North Thompson Fall Fair and Rodeo Association Jill Hayward.
Caputo introduced himself to those in attendance noting that he has lived in the riding his whole life and is familiar with the community, having enjoyed a family cabin on East Barriere Lake. He has also worked a considerable amount of time in the area officiating as a parole officer in the early 2000’s and now as a Crown prosecutor.
Caputo asked Chamber rep Hamblin, who is also a business owner in Barriere, what were the major issues or goals in the community?
“Finding people to fill jobs for our businesses is a huge issue,” answered Hamblin.
Caputo commented traditionally the problem in rural areas has been getting the infrastructure for the jobs, “But now I see help wanted signs everywhere”.
Wohlgemuth, who is also a business owner commented “It used to be we had lots of applications for a job, now we are looking for anyone to come forward to fill the position, things are backwards from what it usually is.”
Mayor Stamer stepped in and commented that one of the biggest challenges in Barriere, Clearwater and 100 Mile House is housing. “We just do not have enough affordable housing, and we have no transitional facilities either. We need a serious influx of seniors housing with transitional care, and that brings a lot of people who can find jobs here rather than travel back and forth to Kamloops for employment, but there is not enough adequate housing here for those people.”
It was also noted that rental housing is getting harder to come by as owners are getting hesitant to rent, and that some trailer parks are starting to no longer rent.
Caputo asked what the impediments would be for a developer to come in and build a subdivision or housing blocks?
District CAO Payette answered, “We are doing pretty well with the availability of land for this municipality and we have the opportunity to maybe rezone some areas. We also have a developer in town who has about 80 lots available, and we have construction companies in town, but the problem for our developer is the cost for him. He has to lay out the infrastructure cost, BC Hydro costs that have skyrocketed, and continue to absorb all these costs which means the cost of the lot and what it can be sold for leave margins that are not great for the developer.”
Payette noted the problem requires a lot of creativity from council and staff to be able to assist these developers to put forward a plan that is financially feasible for them.
The mayor noted Yellowhead Community Services 24 unit affordable housing project is a go and they are just now working with the District to make sure there is enough infrastructure in place to service the building.
“The sewer hook up is a challenge and our water system has been a challenge over the past three summers but we are starting to get our infrastructure to where it should be. Of course this is also a challenge for these developers if they can’t get enough financing to get those projects going. If you were building it in Kamloops you would get that tomorrow.”
After further discussion about bringing affordable housing into rural communities Caputo said, “What do we do about it? We all talk about it and we are all probably tired of hearing about it, but what are we going to do about it here? Do you make mortgage interest tax deductible, do you change the rules? I don’t have the answer, but what I am hearing here is that there is a lot of provincial and federal red tape that is impacting it, so the lack of willingness for a developer to take that financial leap, and I would be the same way in taking that financial leap without a guarantee.”
A discussion on bringing natural gas to the area ensued with Kershaw noting it had been “somewhat considered to bring over by Barriere and Sun Peaks in 2003 but never really went anywhere as studies showed the population of the area could sustain it, but they could not pay for its installation. Every other area’s natural gas has been put in by federal/provincial government and then the people pay for and sustain it.”
Stamer noted another problem to bring natural gas in is “our ground in this area is too porous to store, which means coming up with some other way of storing it, and that is too costly”.
“Right now all of our communities need help to put in water, sewer and roads.,” said the Mayor.
Caputo advised he has already drafted a letter to Fortis asking them what do they need to bring natural gas to Barriere?
“What I would like to hear from Fortis is what will it take. They may say it will never happen but I hope that is not the case. I don’t know what they will say but unless we ask we really don’t know.”
Caputo said the reason he was traveling to the communities within his riding is that he wants to learn from the residents and communities about the issues that affect them.
“Such as talking to Fortis directly as being something tangible that we can do.”
Caputo stated a big problem for local governments is red tape, “which is Ottawa and legislative stuff, which is great and we all have to advocate for the big picture, but the big picture affects everyone in this room.”
Caputo noted he is all for trying to get a handle on red tape and red tape delays that need to be addressed, and asked if Barriere runs into red tape that needs to be addressed to please contact him.
“Sometimes it’s as simple as tabling a Private Members Bill,” said Caputo, “Only two per cent of Private Members Bills get picked up. But, when you table a Private Members Bill it alerts everybody to it; that this is a lawmaking issue, and there are ways to deal with these types of things, we just have to know about them.”
Caputo said rural Internet is also an issue, noting as an example that a number of people within the Barriere area had trouble voting during the Conservative Candidate election, “because they literally could not upload their ID”.
He noted the impacts are huge for rural businesses as right now it seems these areas cannot do anything that involves uploading big files for retail.
Kershaw said the lack of high speed Internet throughout the region is an ongoing problem, especially for emergency preparedness.
“Everyone has a cell phone, but the rest of the service is crap,” said Kershaw, “It’s third world style all the way up the North Thompson.”
Stamer added the lack of cell towers all the way up the North Thompson Valley causes a lack of connectivity and even into Kamloops. Cell service is a necessity for rural communities due to the frequency of wildfires every summer and other natural disasters that require emergency communication to be stable.
Other subjects affecting the area were brought up and discussed, including concerns about a one way power line from Kamloops that services the community.
Harley Wright brought up the topic of government funding assistance for small communities.
“In the last two years during COVID the North Thompson Fall Fair needed to try and help the fall fair grounds to survive in Barriere as they have about $60,000 worth of maintenance costs per year,” stated Wright. “The federal government in my opinion absolutely botched any kind of help coming our way. What they did is they staged the funding program so that you had to have an operating cost of a million dollars to access the funding. But all of the communities like Armstrong and Barriere, 100 Mile, and any of the smaller communities that tried to access funding federally got absolutely nothing for the past two years. I think you’ll find the same problem everywhere, that the focus of the federal and provincial governments has not been on community support as it has been more on support politically. That is one of my biggest complaints about funding to our area, sometimes it creates a political liaison and not necessarily a needs liaison. The only way our organizations survived was because of the generous contributions of our community and our individuals. I would hope that your experience in Ottawa would change that so that if you can prove there is a need in a community that there is a way to access the funding.”
“I’m not going to blow smoke here sir,” said Caputo, “I do know exactly what you are talking about and unfortunately I am only one MP in opposition at this time. What your saying speaks on a bigger level that has been an issue for years and years. But I do know what you are talking about. This is also being discussed on the provincial level and across the prairies. What your saying doesn’t just speak to this, it speaks to a bigger problem everywhere.”
Other issues were discussed during the meeting, including Old Age Security pensions and where will they be in the future.
Caputo wrapped up the event by saying he will be working hard to get to know his region and what his communities need him to advocate for.
“I hope to get out every fall and spring if it can work around my Ottawa commitments,” said the MP-elect, “The people of the Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo have given me a mandate and I have to adhere to that.”
If you have any questions or concerns you can email MP-elect Frank Caputo at: frank.caputo@parl.gc.ca.
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