IN THE LEDGE – What are government’s intentions with Glenfair property?

Excerpt from debate during Committee of Supply for Ministry of Housing in the B.C. Legislature on Thursday, April 25, 2024:

P. Milobar: I was surprised by my colleague earlier when she said not to bring politics, and I really think the minister said not to bring politics into this. But either way, I’m going to bring politics into it, because last I checked, that’s what we’re here for.

No, in all seriousness, just a couple of different projects in Kamloops that I have some specific questions around, mainly pertaining to B.C. Housing. The first one being in what’s commonly known as the government precinct. It’s in behind our courthouse, and there are some other government buildings there. The far eastern corner would be where the old highways works yard was. It abuts the hospital in the very back. Just before Peterson Creek Park, there’s what’s called Glenfair, which is seniors housing, which has been around for as long as I can remember, and I’ve been there since the early ’70s. I think it predates that. That’s for seniors that have been living in there month to month for years.

My understanding is B.C. Housing has now acquired a portion of the government lands, and the conversation in Kamloops over the last little while has been that indications are that this will be a B.C. Housing complex for short-term housing, not longer-term residency. So I’m just trying to get clarification if indeed B.C. Housing has a site behind the courthouse in the government precinct area. That’s referred to in Kamloops terms.

If it’s for short-term housing, what will be the clientele, and how many units will it be?

Hon. R. Kahlon: B.C. Housing has been having some conversations about housing. We’re not at a point yet where we’re prepared to make anything official or public, but we certainly will when that point comes.

P. Milobar: Well, in the backdrop of a housing crisis, my understanding is that the first discussions on this date back to possibly even 2020, but certainly by 2021 there was an acknowledgment that B.C. Housing was working on something back there, and here we are in mid-2024 and no clear timeline or definition of what is actually going to happen, on a backdrop of….

BC Builds purports to be looking to provide government land to build housing. This seems to be a site that is government land and has been in talks for three and a half years now and nothing further to report. So what is the actual timeline on something actually being built, then, on that site?

Hon. R. Kahlon: The member knows that we’ve been making investments in Kamloops to get housing online for people. When we have more information about the specific site, we certainly will make that public.

P. Milobar: Well, I guess part of the problem and part of the issues in Kamloops, frankly, with B.C. Housing projects over the last while…. The Fortune Motel was bought without an operator in mind, without a clientele identified to the public. It turned into a “just trust us” exercise with the community. I had to meet with community members on that. They were fine if it was, say, going to be for low-income seniors but not necessarily if it was for people that were newly released from incarceration and that type of thing.

Then the project sat. Pipes burst. Extra costs had to be dealt with because the building was sitting dormant through a winter period and wasn’t properly winterized, while B.C. Housing was trying to figure out what it was going to do with this property. That’s in the same timeline as this Glenfair property, which has actually been the subject of discussion around planning tables of the city, publicly talking about it, and yet the minister is unable to provide, over three years later, any clarification on what is moving forward.

It has been owned by…. The Glenfair area itself is owned by B.C. Housing. Those are the areas I was talking about previously. They’re one and two storeys high. They were built between 1958 and 1982. So those have been providing stable housing for low-income seniors for all that time, which is great. But I think everyone wants to know what the actual plan by the government and B.C. Housing is to support those tenants long term — but what this type of housing is going to be.

Again, is the minister saying that despite repeated open houses and feedback from the city…? We have Coun. Bill Sarai, back as far as 2021, saying that he was going to be pressing the government for more action on this, and here we are in 2024 with no action taken.

Is there nothing in this budget to actually start moving that project forward with B.C. Housing, or is it just still a plan for the future? I mean, the minister talks about Little Mountain today. This seems to be a chunk of government land that, literally, the government hasn’t taken action on to get building with.

Hon. R. Kahlon: I did have a chance to meet with Councillor Sarai and actually a few councillors just about a couple of months ago when they were all here for a conference, a housing conference led by UBCM. They have expressed a desire to have more housing being built in the community. I also spoke to the mayor, as well, there, and we talked about housing. So what I’m saying to the member is that when we have information around what’s going to happen on that site, we’ll certainly be making it public.

I think it’s also important to note that we have opened 506 housing units in Kamloops.

We have about 300 under development, and we’re prepared to commit more resources to Kamloops to ensure there are more housing options available in the community. It’s something that we’re prioritizing. Kamloops plays an important role, not only because of its location, but also how it supports the smaller communities in the region. That’s why we’ve been making considerable investments in the community, and there’s more to come.

Source: BC Hansard