Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, Peter Fassbender will be in Kamloops on Monday.
During the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in September, the minister made a commitment to visit the city to view and access the New Afton Mine site.
The City of Kamloops is considering stretching its boarders to include the mine which harvests gold, silver and copper.
Mayor Peter Milobar says including the mine within city limits could reduce costs.
“He, I think, just really wants to get a full picture view on the ground and that’s always a good thing,” said Milobar. “This is really around trying to figure out a way to stabilize out regional heavy industry tax rates. What we see with heavy industry, within the city limits versus ones that are literally as close as downtown as our existing heavy industry, is and making sure that the variant tax payers are being treated the same.”
Surrounding Tk’emlups and Skeetchestn Indian Bands have expressed concerns with the proposal. Milobar says meetings have been scheduled to ensure clear communication between all parties involved.
“Obviously, the Tk’emlups and Skeetchestn, they have a secondary entity called the SSN, which is their joint council, and they’ve expressed concerns. We’re sitting down and meeting with them [and] we’re trying to figure out how we can all work together for the betterment of the region,” said Milobar.
Fassbender and Milobar will be meeting with mining and First Nations representatives during Monday’s visit.
