City Council is looking to close Moccasin Flats in the near future, should the Supreme Court allow it

By Tommy Osborne

Moccasin Flats Closure

City Council frustrated with Moccasin Flats, seeks closure

Nov 5, 2024 | 5:29 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The Lower Patricia Boulevard Encampment, also known as Moccasin Flats, was a big topic during the Prince George City Council meeting on November 4. Several Councillors were noticeably frustrated as they discussed the situation, with the City looking for solutions to social health and the safety of the community surrounding the encampment.

“It’s an eyesore, it’s a health and safety hazard, there’s fire hazards. There’s been several shootings there over the years. There have been a number of things, really, the encampment has turned into this lawless area where people can come and go and do what they want,” Councillor Brian Skakun said.

The City is currently in phase one of a four phase plan to address the social health concerns, but is preparing to move into phase two. Phase one was about building the capacity to address hazards, and phase two is “where the City intends to demonstrate appropriate capacity to the Supreme Court to transition the entrenched LPBE (Lower Patricia Boulevard Encampment) to other forms of shelter,” according to a City document.

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“I think we’ll see a really marked improvement once we mitigate the encampment and move people into the housing that they deserve and the supports, to a large extent, that they need,” Councillor Ron Pollilo said.

In 2021, and again in 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that Moccasin Flats could not be closed by the City of Prince George until the City provides appropriate alternate housing options. This directive has been another huge source of frustration for Council, as Skakun explained this is actually a Federal or Provincial Government responsibility, but despite this, the City has been tasked with managing and paying for this.

“It’s costing us literally millions of dollars for the encampments, for bylaw services, staff, resources. We spent half a million dollars just on hooking up services for some temporary housing down there,” Skakun said.

“We just cannot keep paying out of our own wallet to fund programs that the province and the feds are supposed to pay for,” Skakun continued.

Skakun added the encampment, and the surrounding costs with it, are around an additional $10 million a year, which is approximately 7% of the City’s tax dollars. He believes closing the encampment will play a huge role in freeing up this money for other needs.

“Right now it’s just such a challenge. And when we’re going to apply in the next couple of months to close the Patricia Encampment, which is good news for people, but that has cost us a hell of a lot of money just to get to that point,” Skakun said.

Whether or not the City is able to close the encampment comes down to if the Supreme Court will rule in the City’s favour. Has the City done enough to overturn the ruling? City Council believes it has.

“I think we’ve done all that we can as a municipal government to really move this forward, and get a positive outcome when we take this to court and overturn the ruling,” Pollilo said.

“I’m confident that we’re going to be able to shut the encampment down, the folks are going to be provided the housing they deserve, and turn this page in history,” Skakun added.

Beyond the monetary aspect of closing Moccasin Flats, both Pollilo and Skakun add it should greatly improve safety and ideally drastically lower safety hazards.

“The Millar Addition residents would be very pleased with that moving forward. They’ve had to deal with that, with the encampment, for the last three, three and a half years,” Pollilo said.

“The folks in the Millar-Connaught area and the businesses downtown have had to shoulder this burden for too long. But we’re making progress and it’s going to end,” Skakun added.

There is no set date for when the City plans on addressing the Supreme Court, but it says this could happen as early as December or January.

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