Kimberley City Council met for a shorter than usual meeting on Monday, June 9.
The meeting opened with an electronic Public Hearing to consider amendments to a number of zoning bylines and others pertaining to the Official Community Plan, to allow residential development on a portion of 200 St Mary Lake Road. However, Council did not receive any public submissions throughout the hearing.
Curbside Recycling
Council adopted Bylaw No. 2789, City of Kimberley Solid Waste Regulations and Fees Bylaw No. 2694, which had been discussed in previous meetings. Now that it's been approved, the cost of recycling services has been reduced by $4.80 per year for residents, down from $9.96 per year.
"I'm just tickled pink that we can actually offer somebody something a little cheaper than we thought," mentioned Councillor Sandra Roberts.
City staff added that this user fee will remain in place through the rest of this year and it will be reviewed before the end of 2025, and again in mid-2026 in order to capture any anticipated charges in service costs.
Housing Needs Official Community Plan and Zoning Update
Troy Pollock, Manager of Planning Sustainability gave a brief update on the initial public engagement phase planned in relation to the housing needs focused Official Community Plan and zoning bylaw updates being legislated by the Province.
"A lot of people have already noticed that the Engage Kimberley page has a dedicated page on there with projects and project updates and the opportunity to participate in a survey," he said. "Last week we had 132 responses to that survey, which is going really well and open until the end of the month."
The survey is available at engagekimberley.ca and there are two upcoming open houses listed below:
•Wednesday, June 11, 2025, from 5-8 p.m. at Resker Hall in Marysville (660 - 306 Street)
•Thursday, June 12, 2025, from 5-8 p.m. at Centennial Hall in Downtown Kimberley (100 - 4th Avenue).
Anyone who attends either of these open houses will be entered to win a $50 gift certificate.
BC Winter Games Legacy Grants allocated
Council voted to allocate funds from the BC Winter Games Legacy Grant program, which provides financial assistance to amateur sporting groups in Kimberley, to seven organizations.
Manager of Community Development and Communication Pam Walsh noted the recipient list was much the same as it has been in years past, with the call for applicants going out in April.
The recipients are as follows:
•Kimberley Freewheelers - Youth Mountain Bike Program: $1,000
•Kimberley Nordic Club - Nordic Race Team Support: $1,200
•Kimberley Minor Hockey Association - Indigenous Hockey Tournament: $1,500
•East Kootenay Adaptive Snow Sports - Club Development: $1,629
•Kimberley Trails Society - Round the Mountain: $800
•Skimo Canada - North Star Ski Mo Race: $500
•Kimberley Alpine Team - KAT Nancy Greene Program Enrichment/Expansion: $1,400
RCMP Municipal Policing Contract renewal
Council approved sending a letter of approval to the local RCMP detachment, establishing the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) members required for the 2026/27 fiscal year.
"Each year the RCMP request an approval in principle from the City to communicate preliminary policing needs for the following year, so they use this information for planning purposes which impact the recruitment and financial planning at the federal government level," explained CFO Krista Waite.
"We are proposing to maintain a service level of eight members. Historically the practice of the City has been to provide the letter of approval for eight members, but request that they manage the local unit to the actual number of FTE members utilized as seven. As such we budget to accommodate the seven FTEs. This doesn’t necessarily commit the City, it’s just allowing for them to budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year."
Mayor Don McCormick added that although the unit is at eight members, the City is managing to seven.
"Over the course of the year there area leaves, absences and all kinds of reasons why members are absent and they’re not backfilled," he said. "And I believe last year we averaged 5.8 FTEs and if there’s money left over we put it in the reserve for a future what-if. So even though we have managed seven, the reality was last year we had 5.8 FTEs on an average basis throughout the course of the year."
Corporate Officer Maryse Leroux noted that overtime impacts this figure, because when the unit is short on members, the members there do overtime.
"So sometimes there’s a surplus, but it’s definitely impacting the detachment," she said. "And this number of seven is only for the municipal members, we also have provincial members that are paid by the province."
Waite noted that at the end of 2024 there was approximately $350,000 in the reserve, but the City paid the retro payment of $218,000 in the first quarter of this year, leaving approximately $167,000 left in the reserve.
Because Kimberley has a population of under 15,000, the City is obligated, under the Municipal Police Service Agreement, to pay 70 per cent of the cost of providing and maintaining the RCMP's municipal unit in Kimberley, with the federal government paying the remainder.
