Following brainstorming sessions and a variety of meetings in the North Thompson, MLAs Peter Milobar for Kamloops-North Thompson and Todd Stone for Kamloops-South Thompson have announced their plans to push for infrastructure and safety upgrades along Highway 5 from Kamloops to Valemount.
The MLAs’ electoral areas will be changing for the next election with Stone taking over the North Thompson as part of the riding he will be running in and Milobar will be focused on the more urban Kamloops and South Thompson.
The announcement on Jan. 16 focused on B.C. United (the former BC Liberal party) being committed to the improvement of infrastructure and safety for the travelling public on Highway 5. Those promises include adding three new passing lanes, increasing roadside barriers and enhanced signage, another rest stop, establishing a commercial vehicle inspection station near Clearwater, filling RCMP vacancies within highway patrol, reviewability of dash cams, improve commercial vehicle training, upgrade enforcement and emergency response training and overhauling funding model priorities for volunteer fire departments and rural rescue teams.
In an interview with ronaldomanosa, Peter Milobar, MLA for Kamloops-North Thompson said they would be happy if on Feb. 22 he opened the budget book and saw significant dollars earmarked for the Highway 5 north corridor.
“We are hoping if the province wants to rush to insert this into the budget we are more than happy to see that happen. We just want these projects going to improve infrastructure and highway safety on this corridor,” said Milobar. “These improvements should have been happening over the last seven years. We can’t change the last seven years but we can change the future.”
Milobar said recent meetings pointed out “some missing pieces that hadn’t been talked about much before in terms of enforcement and to why we feel there is such importance in building a scale along Highway 5 manned by full-time Commercial Vehicle Safety Enforcement (CVSE) officers.”
Todd Stone, MLA for Kamloops-South Thompson will be running in Milobar’s current area of Kamloops-North Thompson in the next provincial election and was the former Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure with the previous BC Liberal government. Stone points to funding challenges around volunteer fire departments and other first responder organizations as something he would work on.
“This is a provincial commitment that we are making. We are going to review and overhaul the funding model for volunteer fire departments and rural road rescue teams,” Stone promised.
“When we talked to Mike Savage, the chief of the Blackpool Fire Rescue hearing of the incredible work they do and how they have to scrape and scratch every penny they can to have basic equipment to be able to respond in a timely fashion, you realize that model is broken and has been for a long time. We are going to fix it and make sure those teams are properly funded for the extraordinary work they do on behalf of residents and the travelling public.”
Milobar is also concerned after hearing from first responders during recent discussions about highway safety in the North Thompson.
“Funding becomes so crucial when it comes to the trauma these first responders deal with. You want them to feel supported and that they have unfettered access to the types of post-incident supports they need and then they aren’t tying up that time by having hot dog sales to help pay for some other members’ needs.”
Stone shared both he and Milobar were impressed with the partners in the North Thompson as he praised the leadership by Simpcw First Nation Kukpi7, George Lampreau, and the mayors from Barriere, Clearwater and Valemount working together to advocate for the safety improvements along with the TNRD directors in each area along the Highway 5 corridor.
“Pete and I just want to lend our voices to amplify the calls for action … at the end of the day it’s up to the government of the day to actually prioritize the corridor and get on with the serious investments required. If the NDP don’t do it, we are encouraging them to steal all of these ideas and implement all of them, committing to all of them before the next election. We would welcome that. But if they don’t do it then we are saying a BC United government will act on this immediately.”
Black Press has reached out to Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, Rob Fleming for comment and will update readers if he provides a statement or interview regarding this proposed plan presented by BC United party.
