On principle, Coun. Kyle Sampson is 100 percent correct.
The City of Prince George’s contribution to the transitional housing facility slated for the eastern end of Third Avenue should be a big fat zero, not almost half a million dollars. Providing housing for vulnerable residents is the provincial government’s responsibility, not local government.
In reality, however, Sampson is 100 percent wrong.
If the City of Prince George is serious about eventually closing the Moccasin Flats encampment, it has to be able to demonstrate in court that there is sufficient supportive housing available locally. That’s the legal reality. The transitional housing project, along with the repurposing of the North Star and the Knight’s Inn (and the city’s contribution to those efforts), will go a long way towards satisfying that requirement.
If Prince George wants meaningful change on the tangled knot of homelessness sooner, rather than later, it must put local tax dollars on the table and work with the province. That’s the political reality. Kelowna and other B.C. municipalities are further along with their transitional housing efforts because they came to the table last year with a “let’s get this done” attitude, instead of a “how is this our problem?” mentality.
The province’s approach is likely not going to change because the provincial government is likely not going to change. That’s the political reality. Unless there is a drastic change in the polls, voters appear willing to give David Eby and the NDP another four years as the majority government this coming October.
Everyone - the City of Prince George, local residents, downtown business owners and operators, and homeless advocates - wanted the provincial government to step up. Victoria is now taking action, but everyone can also agree to varying degrees that the response should have come sooner and what has been offered so far is inadequate and ineffectual. That’s the social reality.
Residents throwing online hissy fits about the NDP, woke politics, enabling vagrants, drug addiction and mental health being life choices, lack of leadership from local and First Nations governments, police, judges, and Justin Trudeau, along with weeping that Canada is broken, remember the good old days, and if only we could make Prince George great again won’t help, either. That’s actual reality. The problems and the people experiencing them aren’t going away through revenge fantasies about more police, more jails, or other tough love measures.
The sooner principles and other “the way things outta be” beliefs are put aside in favour of facing all of the cold, hard realities for what they are and together as a community and as a society, the better off we’ll all be.
Neil Godbout is the Citizen’s editor.
