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MARCH 6, 2019 | Volume 32 No. 19
WEDNESDAY CHAMPIONS
WEATHER Periods of snow High 1 C Low -4 C
The Westsyde senior boys curling team and the South Kam senior girls hoopsters had weekends to remember
SNOW REPORT Sun Peaks Resort Mid-mountain: 132cm Alpine: 173 cm Harper Mountain Total snow: 150 cm
A24 BEGINS FIVE PAGES OF SPORTS
Cannabis revenue projections lower than estimated
Stacey Hawkins (left) and Arlene York were among those who gathered outside Valleyview secondary on March1 to bring attention to the need for capital funding. DAVE EAGLES/KTW
JESSICA WALLACE
STAFF REPORTER
jessica@kamloopsthisweek.com
RALLYING FOR THEIR KIDS’ SCHOOLS KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK
Advocates for SD73 — a group formed by members of the district and school parent advisory councils — rallied on Friday at Valleyview secondary in a bid to bring attention to the need for capital funding in the Kamloops-Thompson school district. An overcrowded Valleyview secondary has been listed by the school district as the No. 1
capital funding priority, with an expansion pegged at an estimated $24 million. The Ministry of Education is expected to make an announcement soon on the district’s Valleyview request. Next on the school district’s capital projects list is an expansion at Westmount elementary at a cost of $8 million, the construction of an elementary school in Pineview Valley at an estimated cost of $18 million,
and expansion and renovation at South Kamloops secondary, one of the oldest buildings in the district. The school eventually needs to be replaced (at a current cost of more than $50 million), but additional classrooms and a new gymnasium is pegged at about $20 million. Advocates for SD73 has an eight-member executive committee, with 795 members on Facebook.
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As cannabis revenue projections decrease, B.C.’s finance minister is taking a wait-and-see approach in determining how much money municipalities could see as a result of the new legal industry. Based on Ministry of Finance projections and the call by municipalities for 40 per cent of tax revenue the province gets from Ottawa (based on a 75/25 per cent province/federal government cannabis tax revenue split), municipalities would share little more than $9 million per year over the next three years. “We’re having very good conversations with UBCM [Union of BC Municipalities] and I think it really is just a matter of waiting until we see the revenue coming in, until we have a few months of operation, and then coming back to those conversations about who has what responsibilities, who is taking on what roles and what are the costs in that,�
Finance Minister Carole James told KTW. “Making sure we do that based on fact.� Initial projections forecast $50 million coming to the province in the 2018-2019 fiscal year (which ends on March 31) as a result of the federal excise tax that gives provinces 75 per cent of cannabis tax revenue and the federal government the remaining quarter. However, B.C.’s finance ministry revealed after the budget was released in February updated projections of $68 million over the next three years. In a statement to KTW, the ministry said: “It’s important to recognize that the B.C. government does not expect to generate substantial net revenues from legalization as expenses currently surpass potential revenue.� James said the decreased projection is due to the federal government’s delay of 3.5 months in legalizing cannabis. Cannabis was legalized on Oct. 17, but July 1 was the initial target date.
See REVENUE, A6