Williams Lake city council is moving ahead on a new bylaw to try and address issues around tents in city parks, and Boitanio Park in particular.
As communities across the country struggle with increased rates of homelessness, Williams Lake council and staff are working to deal with some of the problems homelessness has caused in the community.
At their Nov. 5 meeting, council passed the first three readings of a new parks and public lands bylaw to provide bylaw and city staff with the tools and support they need to enforce removing tents from areas and limits on when tents can be in designated areas.
A discussion among council found consensus on the need to find another location to designate for temporary shelters after tents and garbage created some issues for the city's children's day camp activities and complaints from disc golfers.
While the new bylaw will go ahead without a new location designated, the bylaw allows for changes to designated locations and council and staff will look to find a new location or location(s) for temporary shelters.
The new bylaw can now be enforced to allow staff to removed temporary shelters if shelters are not full and helps the city avoid issues around legal rights of citizens to erect shelters on public land, including parks after rulings by the courts.
Council present voted in favour of the new bylaw, with the exception of Coun. Scott Nelson, who said he wanted to see the province build more housing and disagrees with tents in parks under any circumstances.
The bylaw passed the first three readings with a "status quo" enforcement option, meaning no additional staff resources will be allocated for the issues related to temporary shelters in parks and problems will be dealt with on a complaints basis.
To read the bylaw, go to: https://williamslake.civicweb.net/document/167675/?splitscreen=true&media=true&attachmenturl=%2FFileStorage%2FE1695AAA75684B59883330070D1E65E7-November%2525205%2525202024-E1.pdf
