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It’s about time

Municipal councils are not known for being the most nimble of deliberative bodies. Heck, a single housekeeping amendment to address the change of language to a procedural bylaw can become a case study in plate tectonics.
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Municipal councils are not known for being the most nimble of deliberative bodies. Heck, a single housekeeping amendment to address the change of language to a procedural bylaw can become a case study in plate tectonics.

Which makes last week’s sudden purchase of property for a shelter and possible transitional housing project in Parksville all the more remarkable.

Not that the issue has been settled at light speed. The Oceanside Task Force on Homelessness has been pushing the need for a shelter for years, and municipal governments have met and agonized over the decision many times.

A unique opportunity to have the construction and operation of the housing project funded provincially presented itself this month. But it came with a hard deadline of March 31 to have a dedicated plot of land secured.

So the Regional District of Nanaimo, the City of Parksville and the Town of Qualicum Beach huddled together and decided to act.

“We had to take the bull by the horns,” Parksville Mayor Marc Lefbvre said.

And bully for them.

One might argue the situation never should have run up against a deadline in this manner. But when it did, there was no time left to go through a community-wide referendum. So the RDN on Monday agreed to a grant-in-aid for the $700,000 needed for the land purchase and Parksville council approved the grant Wednesday during a special meeting at city hall.

Now, of course, each of the respective councils and boards will face the music.

For his part, Lefebvre said both his city and the regional district were well-positioned to absorb the $700,000 cost of the property in their current budgets — which is not the case every year.

The need for affordable or transitional housing — and for a year-round shelter — is not in question. Opponents will argue that “if you build it, they will come,” in reference to transient and homeless persons.

But they are here, like it or not. Last summer was identified by Oceanside RCMP and civic leaders as the busiest to date for calls involving transients camping out in public spaces. And RCMP Staff Sgt. Marc Pelletier told Parksville council this month that the numbers are increasing.

You can have people in a housing project, or you can have them sleeping in the bushes alongside your home.

We’re a long way from actually having a completed structure ready to inhabit. But with funding promised by B.C. Housing and the province, the opportunity is now here.

It’s about time.

— Parksville Qualicum Beach News