EDITORIAL – Was The Loop’s closure really part of a ‘municipal failure’?

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

‘KEEP OUT’ signs liberally spread along a security fence now mark the site of what used to be The Loop premises at the corner of Tranquille Road and Mackenzie Avenue. I would love to have been a fly on the wall for some of the backroom conversations during the past couple of weeks on what’s been going on with services for the homeless.

For one thing, I’ll bet there’s been quite the discussion within the BC NDP over comments by its Kamloops Centre candidate Kamal Grewal , who says there’s been a “municipal failure” in the provision of daytime drop-in services.

Grewal went on to say last week as The Loop was about to be shut down that the City’s role in social service matters — mentioning also the closure of the Mustard Seed’s day program — is her “primary concern.”

She made the comments in a news release so there’s no question about what she said. It’s there in writing: “There’s a municipal failure here that is disconcerting and worrisome. It’s intolerable for a city with a population exceeding 100,000 to fail to provide these essential services.”

To make sure there was no question about which level of government she was blaming, she added that the NDP government has been making major investments in such initiatives as Spero House and A Way Home as well as initiating a poverty reduction plan.

But is the City really to blame? Coun. Nancy Bepple, who was the deputy mayor for July, said in her own news release that the City “had the ability to act more quickly than our provincial partners” on securing a site for a North Shore Access Hub to provide daytime services to the homeless population.

It’s a rather strange development since the City and the Province have been making nice with each other with such determination over the past few months. You may recall the weird move by Kamloops councillors to assure BC Housing that they “have no interest” in an independent third-party review of local shelters and social housing.

More recently, there was much mutual gushing with Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon over provincial housing initiatives.

Then, along comes Grewal, whose comments run counter to the co-operative stance taken by the City and the Province with each other.

Still, the City is slowly moving forward with plans for the access centre, the main holdup until now apparently being available land, which looks like it’s been resolved.

Shuttering the controversial Loop has been a curious exercise. The Tranquille Road property it was using was sold for redevelopment in mid-April, with The Loop given 20 days to vacate. The 20 days came and went.

Finally, last week, the day space was closed down by the new landlord in an early morning operation. Police, CSOs, bailiff and Brown’s Locksmith arrived before the usual opening time and quickly secured the building with new locks, fencing and the aforementioned Keep Out signs.

The locksmith, former councillor and mayoral candidate Ray Dahliwal, sounded pleased in a social media post about how smoothly it went, writing “This is how we do it!!”

One could argue that even though The Loop was way past its deadline to vacate, it should have been given more time to move. One could also argue that Loop operator Glenn Hilke was given plenty of time and should have been moved out long before this past Saturday.

As to Grewal’s comments, it’s arguable whose failure the situation was. But maybe that’s not the point. There certainly was a failure; the issue is rectifying it.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.