qathet Regional District's (qRD) board will consider asking Lift Community Services for monthly progress reports regarding the Community Resource Centre.
At the September 6 committee of the whole meeting, Electoral Area D director and committee chair Sandy McCormick brought forward a recommendation for monthly progress reports. She said in Vancouver, there was a small pocket of disorder that grew and got out of hand, in the Downtown Eastside, taking over the entire neighbourhood.
“I don’t want to see that happen here,” said McCormick. “It starts with one pocket of disorder, so I think it’s important to get these reports to ensure that appropriate efforts are being made to respond to the issues that have been raised around this table. For them to report back on a regular basis regarding their progress is a really appropriate thing to do. I don’t want to see another Downtown Eastside happening in Powell River.”
City of Powell River director Cindy Elliott said if the regional district is requesting reporting, it should ask for timing for reports to be available, maybe for the committee of the whole meeting, so the report is not being received late and directors don’t see it until a month down the road.
“If we can be specific around what would work for us, that would help,” said Elliott.
McCormick said she trusts regional district staff to communicate with Lift about timelines.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he supported McCormick’s recommendation and that he is getting a lot of feedback from the community on the impacts.
“There is a grassroots movement in the community to try to improve this situation,” said Gisborne. “There have been some comments and inferences that local governments don’t have many tools to improve the situation. Communication and attention to the subject in our community is what we can do and that will only help our grassroots folks.”
Gisborne said the matter of the Community Resource Centre has been a growing issue in the community.
“The problem can start small, and if it is not dealt with appropriately, it festers and grows and the next thing you know it is out of control,” said Gisborne. “The problem is still small and this is a good resolution to be sending to Lift.”
City director George Doubt said that Lift, when it applied for grant funding for the centre, the regional district passed the funding, and now the regional district is asking for reports, which is reasonable. Doubt said, however, to suggest that one facility is going to bring about the downfall of society is a little bit of a stretch.
“It’s one facility providing necessary treatment and accommodation for members in our society,” said Doubt. “I understand there is a lot of communication in the Facebook world about all the things that are going on but as leaders in the community, it’s up to us to have a bigger picture on what is going on and see what we can do.
“There are a lot of other problems in our society that are causing what we see happening, not in the Downtown Eastside only, not in Powell River only, but throughout our entire country, where you see a number of homeless people, and a number of people who don’t have any other choices in life but to be where they are. It’s a little rich to say it’s the result of one community organization.”
The committee voted to recommend to the regional board that the board request a monthly report from Lift relative to the progress it is making regarding six proposed solutions contained in the Community Resource Centre community relations and site security plan.
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