By Ashley Legassic

Kamloops businesses call on Eby to discuss future of BCLC

Feb 21, 2019 | 9:57 AM

KAMLOOPS — Ten businesses and organizations in the city have signed a letter asking for a meeting with BC Attorney General David Eby regarding the future of BCLC in Kamloops.

Earlier this year, Eby announced that plans for a new headquarters building for the lottery corporation in Kamloops were scrapped.

The current BCLC building is in the heart of downtown Kamloops, and lots purchased by the corporation adjacent to the current property were slated for part of the headquarters’ redevelopment.

Bryce Herman is the president of the North Shore Business Improvement Association (NSBIA). He says although the location is downtown, the future of the company in Kamloops has an impact on the whole community.

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“We look at it from the greater good of Kamloops — if Kamloops does well we all do well, so it’s not about dividing from the North and the South or East-West or any other division within the city — this is about the greater good for the city of Kamloops,” Herman says. “That’s why the 10 agencies got together and signed this letter, and sent it off, and said, ‘We’d really like the opportunity to have a meeting face-to-face and just discuss this.’”

The primary reason for the proposed meeting would be to feel out if the plans are completely off the table, or just on hold. Herman says the businesses outlined in the letter the importance of the relationship between the business community and BCLC.

“What we’re really wanting to say is don’t mark a line through it and say it’s not going to happen. Let’s maybe look at a slightly different approach and can we look at it in a slightly different way,” he says. “And maybe that’s a property that’s of a slightly lower scale, and bringing the cost down on that. But the long-term investment really right here in the city of Kamloops is very important to all of us.”