Prince George City Council gave final reading and adopted an amendment to the Parks and Open Space Bylaw at last night’s (Monday) meeting.
The amendment changes the boundaries of the City’s temporary overnight sheltering (TOS) site, commonly referred to as Moccasin Flats or the Lower Patricia Boulevard encampment.
According to a staff report to Council, in municipalities where the number of unsheltered individuals is greater than the number of accessible shelter beds, individuals have a constitutional right to erect a shelter during overnight hours.
Municipalities may designate specific areas for this purpose, and in Prince George, the area designated for TOS is the Lower Patricia Boulevard encampment.
Map showing the proposed Temporary Overnight Sheltering area in blue, overflow in red (Courtesy: City of Prince George)
The new temporary overnight sheltering site would be at the eastern end of the encampment, with a fenced off area that would allow 20 sites for people to shelter overnight, with the requirement that they leave the next morning. (In blue on included map)
This would also include an overflow area that would allow for 70 more sites if needed. (In red on included map)
At that meeting, City staff had said a smaller physical size for the site would result in lower maintenance costs, and fencing would prevent expansion.
“20 is lots, I know that they’re going to be contained, but my concern is we will not have the staff and whatever else it takes to maintain the overflow,” said Councillor Brian Skakun.
“You know the saying, if we build it, they will come or whatever, once folks know that they can go there overnight, my concern is that they might get entrenched, or feel that they’re allowed to stay there as long as they can, and then next thing you know we have staff getting into confrontations and things like that, it’s a pretty difficult position to put our own folks in.”
Director of Administrative Services Eric Depeneau said those concerns were shared by staff.
“I think the thing that I would hinge some of this on is that now, since the August decision of Justice Elwood, we’ve largely been able to enforce your Parks and Open Spaces bylaw and make use of the TOS site, similar to other parts of the province,” Depeneau said.
“That wasn’t the case before that August decision. Previous legal direction was that folks were able to remain entrenched on the site and that we could not decamp individuals, in August that changed, and so today, there’s not an entrenched population in this area.”
Skakun also brought up a report from the RCMP yesterday, which stated a shooting incident occurred at the encampment area Sunday evening that resulted in two people being injured.
“There’s a trailer that is in the centre of the red area on this map, and that trailer has been there since, I want to say January of 2025,” Depeneau explained.
“It was illegally deposited on the site, and we’ve been working to have it removed. The challenge with that final remaining structure, everything else has been taken off, it’s just that the August decision of Justice Elwood gave specific direction for the handling of what they define as remaining occupants, and that structure is attached to a remaining occupant.”
Depenaeu said he believes the City of Prince George and City Council have done everything they can to address the site, and the challenge is for BC Housing and its contractors to fulfill their mandate and find housing for those that are most challenging to house.
“There’s a gentleman who is challenging to house, and we are working with them to find alternate shelter, but at this time, they reside in that trailer, and it continues to be a magnet for problematic activity,” he said.
“It’s so unfortunate that, the position we have been put in as a local government to not be able to really control what’s going on in our own backyard,” Skakun said.
Skakun added his frustrations have nothing to do with City administration or staff.
“It’s just frustration with the process and the responsibilities that have basically been dumped on us,” he said.
Councillor Tim Bennett asked if there would be specific limitations in the TOS regarding burning.
Depeneau added there is no plan for open burning to be permitted on the TOS site.
Mayor Simon Yu added that because of the efforts of City Council, there is no longer an active encampment
“I do believe that part of the court order is we do have to have an overnight place,” he said.
“We have not seen a huge amount of activity within the blue zone, hopefully with adequate housing supply, we can mitigate the situation throughout the City in the most effective way.”
The bylaw amendment was approved and adopted, with Councillors Skakun and Kyle Sampson opposed to the final reading.
While he didn’t speak at last night’s meeting, Sampson had said at the previous meeting he would support the size reduction, but not having an overflow.
Later in the meeting, responding to a letter of correspondence sent in regards to the bylaw amendment, Council approved a flyer campaign directed towards the Millar Addition to explain the changes, as well as having the Communications department doing broader education.
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