After several months of searching, the Cowichan Valley Regional District has had no success in finding another location for a regional emergency weather shelter.
The CVRD had been looking to lease a commercially available space to house an emergency weather centre since January after receiving numerous complaints about the shelter’s current location at the Cowichan Community Centre.
At a recent council meeting in North Cowichan, Mayor Rob Douglas said he had met with CVRD Chair Aaron Stone and other mayors in the Cowichan Valley to find options for an alternative site for the controversial emergency shelter.
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“With the current site set to close at the end of March, we are shifting our focus to next winter and have agreed to write to the province asking for their assistance and funding, ideally, to secure a permanent site in a more appropriate location,” Douglas said.
“The CVRD Chair [Stone] will be writing the province and I would like to cosign the letter. If we show our jurisdictions are working together, this could help in terms of advocacy.”
The CVRD board decided in December to designate the Cowichan Community Centre’s Heritage Hall as a place to support the unhoused population in the Cowichan region during extreme weather conditions until March 31 in response to the newly introduced Bill 31 of the Disaster and Emergency Management Act of BC.
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The bill gives the province the authority to mandate communities to establish emergency weather shelters during extreme weather events if they have not done so themselves.
Attempts by local emergency organizations and local governments over the years to find a suitable location have proven unsuccessful.
After a number of user groups, including the Cowichan Valley Minor Hockey Association and the Cowichan Capitals hockey organization, complained about the use of the Heritage Hall for the shelter, citing mainly safety and security concerns, the CVRD began searching for another spot for the centre earlier in the year.