WILL STRIKE BE AVERTED? About 3,000 conductors, train staff and yard workers could be on picket lines Tuesday morning
TODAY’S WEATHER
PAGE A15
Sunny and hot High 31 C Low 16 C
KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK TUESDAY
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MAY 30, 2017 | Volume 30 No. 64
NDP, Greens reach deal to govern B.C. CAM FORTEMS STAFF REPORTER cam@kamloopsthisweek.com
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SMOOCH WITH A POOCH
Kelowna’s Kelsey-Ray Hutchinson was visiting Kamloops on the weekend and her dog Bentley made friends with hometown girl Emily Norman when the two met at Saturday’s FemSport competition at Sahali Mall.
Water plant fix pegged at $250K ANDREA KLASSEN
STAFF REPORTER
andrea@kamloopsthisweek.com
Fixing the problems that led to an eight-hour loss of treatment capacity at the Kamloops water treatment plant earlier this year will cost the city at least $250,000, council will hear at its regular meeting on Tuesday. In a staff report, capital projects manager Darren Crundwell said the
city has been working with a consultant to identify improvements needed at the plant, after a local power failure knocked it out of commission on March 8. A first set of recommendations would see the city create backups of the processors which control the three most important functions of the treatment process. Improvements to lessen the chances of a power surge would
also be part of the work. Crundwell said the first $250,000 phase likely isn’t the last of the work, with future improvements estimated to cost between $550,000 and $700,000. Those other updates wouldn’t be done until the city has other obsolete equipment at the plant to replace, Crundwell said, and the initial work would eliminate any risk of the March shutdown occurring again.
Kamloops’ two MLAs will begin their terms sitting on the Opposition benches following a historic deal announced Monday between the NDP and Greens to form a minority government. The deal, called a confidence and supply agreement, means the three Green MLAs have agreed to support an NDP government on confidence and finance bills. That will give the slimmest combined 44 seats for the two parties over the Liberals’ 43. Still in play is what party will agree to a speaker, which could effectively deadlock the two sides. “We can have a stable minority government for four years with the support of B.C. Green MLAs on confidence NDP LEADER and supply matters,” JOHN HORGAN said Andrew Weaver, who led the Greens to three seats. “After taking the time to engage in good faith discussions with both parties, our caucus has concluded that it is in the best interests of British Columbians for new ideas and new approaches to be brought to the B.C. Legislature. “This is an incredible opportunity to work together to fix our broken political system.
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