Danielle Doucet returned home in Valleyview recently after several months away expecting to see the green space along the Trans Canada Highway with its usual flowers and attractive entrance.

Instead, she found it overgrown with thistles and weeds spilling into the sidewalk, the usual features missing.

“Last year it had flowers and there were staff there once, twice a week. It was gorgeous,” she said. “Now it’s six-foot-tall weeds and thistles, and the flowers are all dead, so that was a lot of money wasted.”

What she didn’t know was that city hall stopped maintaining that space and many others around the city intentionally — and hopes residents will help them point the finger at the provincial government which owns those properties. The city has only maintained them until this year.

Leaving them neglected is council’s way of publicly highlighting ‘provincial downloading’ or added costs and responsibilities from Victoria that Kamloops and other BC municipalities have felt forced to absorb. It’s not purely symbolic, city council expected to save $120,000 by eliminating maintenance on all provincial government land, including highway interchanges.

Doucet isn’t the only resident or visitor to notice — and complain to the city — but there doesn’t appear to be an appetite to change course.

“Our stance has been, on so many issues, we’re going to stand up to the government when they’re trying to download things on us and make us pay for what they should be paying for,” Coun. Dale Bass said at a city council meeting earlier this month.

'SYMBOLS OF NEGLECT': Why Kamloops councillors left this city entrance to the weeds | iNFOnews.ca — City staff used to manage this green space near Highland Drive, but the provincial government hasn’t picked up the slack with before and after compared in these images. SUBMITTED/Google Streetview (left) and Danielle Doucet (right)

The Valleyview neighbourhood in particular, which runs parallel to the Trans Canada, has been a major source of complaints.

On Aug. 11, city staff told council the province doesn’t do seasonal flower planting and has no intention of maintaining previous standards. That means it won’t improve at all without city hall convincing the ministry to step-up or picking up the tab itself. Parks manager Jeff Putnam said it would cost $83,000 for the rest of the year to clean the overgrowth and prepare for next year but it’s unclear if that is new money or reassignment of existing parks staff.

City council made no decision.

The funding cut was supposed to be coupled with a messaging campaign to the public, pointing out that the land is owned by the provincial government. It’s not clear whether that happened.

That’s all politics. Doucet and her neighbours are just stuck with the weeds.

“Our city’s entrances create a first impression for visitors and should be places of pride, not symbols of neglect,” she said.