Grand Forks city council will be raising a handful of priorities with provincial ministers and decision makers next week at the 2019 Union of B.C. Municipalities conference in Vancouver.
Among the concerns: support for mental health and addictions, housing struggles, flood recovery and mitigation and a request that BC Housing rethink how it goes about implementing projects in communities. As such, the city has arranged meetings with the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Premier John Horgan, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the Minister of Health.
Mayor Brian Taylor said that he hopes to impress upon the ministers how Grand Forks needs help in certain areas that are beyond the region’s current capacity.
“I think, clearly from counsellor standpoint, we don’t have the resources to deal with some of the people that we’re looking at in the community,” Taylor said, referring to individuals who he says are not being helped by the current law enforcement and services programs in the region.
A recently formed Grand Forks Community Action Team, meant to evaluate overlaps and gaps in current services that deal directly with people affected by opioids in the community, is a good example of how Grand Forks is trying to find local solutions, Taylor said.
Council’s meeting with Horgan is expected to be “focused pretty heavily on floods and disaster support,” Taylor said. With the city having formally requested greater financial support and flexibility with funds within the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Grant, Taylor said that the goal with the premier is to impress, in-person, the dissatisfaction of residents whose properties are slated to be bought by the city under the flood mitigation plan.
“[In the buyout calculation], we want to value the land being vacated,” said Taylor.
That formal request was sent to Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth, but no formal meeting between council and the minister has been scheduled for next week.
In a meeting with Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Selina Robinson, council is slated to express its dissatisfaction with a lack of consultation and communication between Crown corporation BC Housing and members of the community.
“There is a concerted effort [from several municipalities] to have BC Housing recognize that some of the things that they’re doing are not really helping communities accept the kind of service they’re offering,” Taylor said.
“A ‘good neighbour’ approach is what we need,” Taylor said. “And yet you’re not seeing BC Housing talk about ‘good neighbour’ approaches until the facility is [already] there.”
Beyond ministerial meetings, Grand Forks representatives at next week’s conference will also be putting out the word that the city is hiring for its top staff position of Chief Administrative Officer.
