The Chair of the TNRD Board says there are a number of misconceptions about what is happening when it comes to people living in temporary homes in the district.

Ken Gillis says there is no ‘crack down’ and even if they wanted to have one, they couldn’t as they don’t have the staff for it.

“We have one by-law officer for 45,000 square kilometres of TNRD. Nobody is going out and looking for people living in RVs on a permanent basis, but we do have a by-law that prohibits that and so there’s been a lot of misunderstanding.”

Gillis says typically when warning letters are handed out, people come into the office to try and come to a resolution.

“We have resolved the vast, vast majority of these situations through discussion and negotiation. There’s a perception there that you can’t live in your RV under any circumstances, that’s completely incorrect. If you have a building permit and you’re actively engaged in the building of a house, you can live in your RV while you’re doing that.”

If Gillis could put out just one message to those that are worried, it would be this: “The most important message I think that I can deliver, is there is nobody out there driving around looking for people to force out of their RV’s.”

“We have a policy that we only act in cases where there has been a complaint received and no action has been taken against anyone where no complaint has been received.”

Gillis believes many people were unaware of the rules around temporary homes and that has created a bit of the concern. He admits there was some misinformation put out, which caused a bit of a stir.

Listen to the full interview from The Jeff Andreas Show below

https://soundcloud.com/user-965676831/jeff-andreas-show-ken-gillis-sept-18