Two city councillors will push for Prince George administration to prepare an updated report on the potential cost of installing downtown public washrooms at the Monday, Dec. 2 council meeting.
The agenda for the meeting says the motion is being brought forward by Coun. Tim Bennett and Coun. Trudy Klassen.
The councillors’ motion puts particular emphasis on revisiting two options presented in a 2019 staff report.
The first option proposed opening the washrooms at Canada Games Plaza every day from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., with a staff member on-site to monitor operations and city custodial staff cleaning them.
The second option proposed improving washroom access at downtown service providers like Saint Vincent de Paul and Positive Living North beyond their current operating hours.
This option suggested that those service providers would bear the cost of operating and maintenance costs but would receive a one-time grant to offset the cost of hiring a monitor to oversee the washrooms.
“Agencies would be encouraged to utilize a client/peer employment model,” the report stated.
The councillors' motion also asks staff to prepare a list of currently available public washrooms in downtown Prince George and compare that availability with other BC municipalities as well as Grande Prairie and Edmonton.
On top of that, staff are asked to include questions about public washroom access in future surveys the city send out, to apply for grants relating to establishing year-round public washroom access and for council to ask the Standing Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs to lobby higher levels of government for increased capital funding for bathrooms.
In a discussion section after the motion, Bennett and Klassen said that public washroom access “is incredibly important when it comes to inclusion, accessibility and ensuring a strong, healthy and welcoming community.”
They said that this access is important not just for those who are unhoused or underhoused, but also for families with young children, people with medical conditions “and those who drink too many coffees on their trip to the Farmers’ Market.”
Though transitional housing projects are said to be improving washroom access for those living in them, the councillors said that it doesn’t address the lack of washrooms for general public use.
In 2022, the Village of Valemount opened self-cleaning washrooms manufactured by Quebec-based company Urben Blu.
At the time, the village was quoted in The Rocky Mountain Goat as saying that these washrooms were built for extreme weather and were made of vandalism-resistant materials and safety features.
The Goat also reported that Valemount received a $327,860 grant from the BC Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport to cover 80 per cent of the installation and purchase costs of the washrooms.
In Klassen and Bennett’s report, they suggest that those Urben Blu washrooms could be an example of what Prince George could build, though they acknowledge that some of those funding streams no longer exist.
They also acknowledge that in a follow-up Goat story a year later, residents expressed frustration over perceived shortcomings with the washroom.
“A report back to council will allow council to determine next steps including but not limited to receipt of the report, referral to budget consultations or addition to future capital plans,” the councillors’ report concludes.
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