Trail city council is asking its staff to come up with a long-term plan for extreme weather shelters.
The city has not had an overnight cold-weather shelter this winter because building inspectors have insisted that any such space must have sprinklers. That’s despite the fact a shelter that operated in the United Church basement the past two years didn’t have sprinklers.
Although BC Housing is willing to fund an extreme weather response shelter, it would only operate during the day. The volunteer group that ran the local shelter previously says it’s unwilling to operate a facility unless people are allowed to sleep there.
At least one person has died outdoors this winter.
Councillor Bev Benson introduced a motion last week that asks city staff to work with the regional district, provincial government, Interior Health, and the RCMP to figure something out.
“We can’t keep reinventing this every year,” she said. “It’s inefficient. It’s super stressful. I see the emotion it’s brought out of council, of staff, of our volunteer groups. And most of all, it leaves our vulnerable residents at risk.
“I don’t want to see the next council scrambling to secure locations and volunteers and approvals. We need to build a system that outlives any one council term, any one staff team or any one volunteer group.”
Benson’s motion applies to both warming and cooling centres. She said other municipalities have extreme weather plans, including Kelowna, Kamloops, Prince George, Victoria, and Surrey.
Benson said her intention was not to criticize past efforts, but to build on them.
“It acknowledges the hard work of our staff, our volunteers and partners, but it recognizes that this system wasn’t sustainable three years ago, and it’s still not adequate,” she said.
“We have excellent people willing to step forward for the shelter. They weren’t [willing to] if we had a [warming] center, and that’s fine, that’s their prerogative. But perhaps there is the Red Cross or someone else we could have reached out to if we had a plan in place.”
The motion passed unanimously. It calls for staff to report back in early summer.
On the same agenda, council endorsed a related resolution that will be brought to the Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Governments annual meeting.
It asks the province to “provide clear, practical, and consistent guidance on the application of the BC Building Code and BC Fire Code for temporary emergency warming centres and shelters that can be safely implemented through site specific fire safety plans and risk mitigation measures.”
The City of Fernie has passed a very similar resolution.
A separate resolution from Trail asks the province to establish a “sustainable, province‑wide funding model” to offset the “disproportionate emergency‑response, public‑safety, and sanitation costs borne by rural host communities responding to overdose and toxic‑drug‑related impacts.”
Councillor Thea Hanson also introduced a notice of motion, to be discussed at council’s next meeting, which asks the province to provide funding to offset Trail’s “disproportionate share of emergency response costs” associated with overdose calls attended by emergency services. It further asks the government to create a funding model that recognizes the demands placed on communities with regional hospitals.
(CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said BC Housing was willing to fund a warming centre. In fact, the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness funds warming centres, which normally operate during the day. BC Housing funds extreme weather response shelters.)
Be the first to know! Don’t miss out on breaking news and daily updates in your area. Sign up to MyKootenayNowNews Alerts.
