Committee of the Whole Meeting–April 1, 2025

City Hall front exterior

Master Service Agreements for Design and Construction

Matt Kachel, the City's Infrastructure Delivery Divisional Manager, provided the Committee of the Whole with background information on master service agreements and collaborative delivery for design and construction. Since 2018, the City has transitioned to using master service agreements, enabling early contractor involvement in capital projects, which has provided valuable insights that significantly improve cost control and schedule reliability. Thanks to our early adoption of master service agreements, Kamloops is recognized as a leader in the industry and was invited to present at BUILDEX this year, a prestigious event and the largest architecture, engineering, and construction conference in Western Canada.

Staff continually assess what works in our master service agreements and identify areas for improvement, implementing these changes as opportunities arise. Several iterations of the agreements have taken place over the years, reflecting the lessons learned. The initial master service agreements began as single-source, two-year contracts. They subsequently transitioned to multi-source, one-year contracts with optional extensions.

Another change staff are implementing in new services agreement procurement processes is to split the work into three streams—small, medium, and major. This new breakdown provides more opportunities for smaller and new contractors or consultants to build up their portfolios and project lists over time, gaining experience to eventually participate in larger projects. It also allows the City to achieve economies of scale on major projects by working with companies that own parts of the supply chain and wield Canada-wide buying power.

The City recently conducted a workshop with all current master service agreement partners to gather their feedback on what works and identify areas for improvement. Infrastructure Delivery staff are collaborating with Procurement staff on several new master service agreement processes, building on lessons learned from previous experiences.

2025 Budget Update

Dustin Rutsatz, the City's Planning and Procurement Manager, provided the Committee of the Whole with a final update on the 2025 budget expectations before presenting the Five-Year Financial Plan Bylaw to Council on April 8, 2025, for first readings.

On March 11, 2025, Administration provided a provisional budget update to the Committee of the Whole, which reflected a tax rate of 8.51%. After recommendations on supplemental budget items, that tax requirement grew to 9.11%.  

Several environmental changes and federal announcements have occurred since the presentation of the supplemental budget items, which have the potential to impact the City’s financial operations. This meeting’s update presented options for some final changes to the budget. After reviewing the options presented, the Committee of the Whole recommended the following new considerations for the Five-Year Financial Plan Bylaw that will receive first readings on April 8: 

  • deferring the initial debt funding to modernize the current police services building with a plan to reassess in 2026
  • shifting the hiring of six additional Community Services Office to take effect July 1, 2025
  • shifting the funding source for proposed security cameras from taxation to the Equipment Reserve
  • accounting for announced changes to the BC carbon tax with a 50% reduction in the budgeted costs for 2025 and complete elimination for future years.

These proposed changes will result in a $2.4 million budget reduction and a change to taxation-based funding in 2025, resulting in a lower property tax increase of 7.42%.