BCLC has scrapped plans to build a new headquarters in downtown Kamloops, opting instead to remain in its dated building and “defer any further discussions of redevelopment into the future,” according to a news release Thursday.
The lottery corporation had planned to erect a new home at the corner of Seymour Street and West Victoria, where its current offices sit.
Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone said the move is “totally unacceptable.” His BC Liberal party spearheaded the plan for a new BCLC headquarters in the Tournament Capital before the governing NDP took power in 2017.
“At the end of the day, my worry on all of this, is BC Lotteries has been in Kamloops for about 33 years now, the headquarters, and it’s been a constant battle,” Stone told KTW.
“It’s ebbed and flowed through those three decades, where at times in BC Lotteries’ history, with different governments in power, there has been an impulse to migrate jobs out of the Kamloops headquarters down to the Lower Mainland office.”
BCLC employs about 450 people in Kamloops.
Stone said the planned BCLC redevelopment had called for an additional 200 jobs in the city. He said those jobs will now likely be filled by workers in the Lower Mainland.
As of Wednesday, Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian said he received assurances from B.C. Attorney General David Eby during their last meeting that the re-build would move ahead and the headquarters would remain in Kamloops.
“I haven’t heard anything other than the rumour since then,” he told KTW.
More to come …
