A motion asking City of Kamloops staff to study the potential of developing a wellness centre for people with mental-health and addiction issues was defeated by council Tuesday.
Councillor Denis Walsh says he knows his motion was controversial, but noted the focus is about shifting to long-term planning with a focus on recovery.
“What we have been doing is not working, at least for a large portion of marginalized homeless people and mentally ill, and especially the residents and business owners of Kamloops. I think we need another option just another model to look at,” he said.
“A lot of these people want to change their lives but they don’t have the right situation, the right environment, and the right opportunities to make that transition.”
“It has been floating around now for quite a few months if not almost a year now about what we need to be doing,” Walsh added. “To me a healthy society needs to provide places for people in addiction and homelessness to basically get better, to stabilize their lives, and we need a greater focus on recovery models to help people get those lives back.”
There were some parts of Walsh’s motion that had support from his colleagues. Councillor Bill Sarai, for instance, said while the city would be “way out of our realm” to create a wellness centre on its own, there needs to be more done to address addiction-related issues.
“We need to do more with other agencies and higher levels of government. The shelter is not the place for these people to get the help.”
He noted what is lacking in Kamloops is dry recovery beds in Kamloops, also saying that he would rather a facility be located in the TNRD, Rayleigh or in Knutsford instead of in downtown Kamloops, pointing to the Mission Flats Manor as an example of temporary housing that has worked.
Similarly, Councillor Mike O’Reilly said Walsh should not have identified Rayleigh as a possible location in his motion.
“We can not force anybody to ever go to one of these facilities. If something like this were to be built, it will not solve all of our problems. It won’t. It’s not a silver bullet,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that we need in this city. We don’t build schools. We don’t build cancer clinics. We don’t build new hospitals. We don’t do anything to do with healthcare and we do not build housing.”
O’Reilly went a step further to suggest that the City partner with the Thompson-Nicola Regional District to identify a potential location for this facility, which would ultimately be funded by other levels of government.
“This notice of motion is asking to study the Tournament Capital Ranch as just an example, there are other options, basically shifting to long-term planning with a focus on recovery,” Walsh added.
Walsh’s motion was split into two – the first part to study the potential for the wellness centre in partnership with the TNRD was defeated five votes to four. Walsh, Sarai, O’Reilly and Councillor Arjun Singh voted in favour, while Councillors Kathy Sinclair, Sadie Hunter, Dale Bass, Dieter Dudy, and Mayor Ken Christian were opposed.
The second part – related to the location as well as to look at a financial partnership with other levels of government – was defeated eight votes to one, with only Walsh in favour.
“The motion itself is an example of this toxic narrative and the narrative that I see on social media and the narrative that I hear in community. And the language throughout this is dehumanizing and generalizes a really complex issue,” Hunter said, noting the wording of the motion was “inappropriate and dehumanizing.”
“It, quite frankly, shows a blatant ignorance around mental illness and substance use. And I can’t in good conscience support any of it.”
Hunter called on their colleagues to show compassion towards people with addiction and mental-health issues as she says everyone’s situation is different.
Councillor Dieter Dudy said while the proposal was defeated, he wants people to know that council is sympathetic to the situation in the community.
“We would like to find an answer that would solve this. In fact, I’d like to just snap my fingers and make it all go away if I could and everybody would be happy but we know that’s not going to happen,” he said.
“I guess the point I’m trying to make is just to go down a path that we know we cannot be able to finish seems fruitless and it also seems like a waste of time not only for us but for those people that are directly affected by all this.”
Dudy says as a local government, the City of Kamloops is not equipped to build, finance, run a facility of this nature, adding it is the responsibility of the provincial government.
Mayor Glad Conversation Was Started
Speaking on the NL Morning News Wednesday, Mayor Ken Christian says while the motions were defeated, he is glad the conversation was started.
“It was rich and it was fulsome and I think it was necessary. And, kudos to Councillor Walsh for getting that before council,’ Christian said. “I think he’s just reflecting what he and other councillors are hearing from members of the public, the business community and associations and the police.”
“There a population in Kamloops that are poverty affected. They’re stricken by poverty, homelessness, those kinds of things and they’re lashing out and some of the behaviours are really unacceptable so I think councillor Walsh’s idea was to create a special place for them in a corner of the city.”
Christian thinks that there are several people to talk to if the conversation is to be kept going, noting there is consensus that a facility is needed but added the question of who should operate it remains.
“It was a good discussion and I think some of the models that are out there, Vision Quest being one and some of the others,” he said. “We need to get advice from the medical health officer, from mental health and addictions, from BC Housing about is that the kind of facility they’re prepared to support.”