Victoria and B.C. government at stalemate over cold-weather shelters

The B.C. government and the City of Victoria appear caught in a political stalemate trying to balance resources and keep people sheltered in the cold.

The B.C. government and the City of Victoria appear caught in a political stalemate trying to balance tight resources and keep people sheltered through the recent cold snap.

B.C.’s housing and municipal affairs minister says a pair of requests from city staff for resources at its emergency warming centre have been denied because they’re not services the province provides directly, which Victoria’s mayor disputes.

“Asking for trained people, asking for transportation, the City of Victoria knows that (Emergency Management and Climate Readiness) does not fund that,” says Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon.

“We do have 53 emergency weather beds that are open. We have 200 supportive homes that are under construction, 487 shelters that are being funded by the province just in Victoria alone. So there are significant investments, but some of those pieces we require local governments to be prepared for this type of thing.”

Victoria’s fire chief and mayor have gone public signalling staff resources are at a breaking point working overnight to keep an emergency warming centre open for people to have a safe, warm place to go as non-government organizations providing sheltering services are full.

The officials say asking for EMCR to deploy resources to assist efforts when they need help is no different than putting out calls for requests in other emergencies such as floods and wildfires.

“Certainly we have done that in British Columbia, across Canada, in fact, recently even in the United States. And so given that this is clearly an urgent, emergent matter – I’m puzzled why it is that EMCR wouldn’t feel that this was an appropriate time to send out a call for help to the rest of B.C. and to expect that at least somebody would come to help,” says Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto.

B.C.’s housing minister is encouraging the city to call other municipal partners on its own, which Victoria staff say they have and aren’t finding the uptake they’re looking for.

“We have grants available for local governments that want to do training for their staff. But we don’t have a workforce that is ready to go for an emergency of this kind. Local governments are the ones who are leads. And we have local governments across the province that have trained their staff up to prepare for emergencies and I hope Victoria was able to do that same thing,” adds Kahlon.

Victoria’s mayor says it’s about a lack of resources in the community – and she hopes the situation generates a wider conversation on how these programs function in a crisis.

“We genuinely believe that cities have a role to play, but they are the role of last resort. And EMCR has a role to play too. Their role is to make sure that when we hit that wall that we can appeal to other folks around the province through EMCR to help us out – just like we help people out when there are fires and floods and other natural disasters. We hope they’ll help us out too when it’s so cold here that we have people outside struggling mightily in the temperatures we’re not used to,” says Alto.

The city operated its warming centre at the Cook Street Village Activity Centre for the 10th consecutive night Feb. 12 and has said it’s committed to keeping it open as long as the extreme cold persists.