With frosty conditions still in the forecast, Victoria’s newly-minted mayor is facing questions over the activation protocols for its extreme weather response plans.
The Greater Victoria Extreme Weather Response Plan prompts the opening and co-ordination of shelter spaces and resources to protect those in need in unsafe weather conditions.
It was not activated last Friday, however, during a windstorm with gusts up to 90 km/h, and it wasn’t given the green light on Monday night until about 11 p.m.
On Monday, however, Mayor Marianne Alto said the plan was put in place despite the temperature activation threshold not having been met.
“In combination with the wind and the snow on the ground it became very evident that we needed to take a humane approach, and staff went out and opened the warming shelter in the James Bay United Church and the Rock Bay (Landing) shelter,” she explained. “That’s what will happen again tonight.”
Alto said she would like to see less ambiguous criteria in place for the activation of the response plan and hopes to speak with the provincial government on the matter. The criteria include variety of weather factors, including temperature, rainfall, wind, and more.
She said the future of the plan and its funding will also be discussed Thursday in a committee meeting.
“For me, the question is, how do we move forward and try to have something a bit simpler and a bit more realistic, and a bit more real-world experience where we can actually say, ‘You know, it’s cold,'” she said.
“It doesn’t matter what the math works out to. It’s actually just the reality of being able to see when people are at risk and when they’re vulnerable.”
Warming centres will be open Tuesday night at James Bay United Church and the Victoria Cool Aid Society in Rock Bay Landing.
Environment Canada has issued public weather alerts for inland sections of the Central and North coasts as Arctic outflow winds are expected to gust to 50 km/h on Tuesday night. Combined with cold temperatures, they will produce wind chill values near -20, and the agency is warning residents that anyone who is underdressed is at risk of frostbite and hypothermia.
Grant McKenzie, director of communications for the Our Place Society, said many were caught “unawares” by the early, bitterly cold temperatures. Not everyone has been able to access shelter, he added, and some were outside overnight on Monday.
“A lot of people were just out in the cold, bundled up as best they could,” he told Global News.
“I really think that nobody should be on the street, nobody should be in parks. This is something we should have dealt with a long time ago.”
Alto said it was not her “understanding” that anyone was turned away from James Bay United Church or Rock Bay Landing on Monday night and that there were empty spaces in both locations.
While Monday’s warming shelter availability was communicated by the municipality on Twitter, Alto said the city relies on service providers with close relationships to the unhoused to spread the word about available space.
McKenzie said Our Place, a 30-mat shelter, turns away between 15 and 20 people every night. Victoria needs a fully-staffed overnight shelter in the downtown core, he added, that holds bed spaces for folks so they know where they’re sleeping from night to night.
“We’ve never had that kind of commitment to a shelter space. I think that’s a combination of the province and the city to make that happen,” he said.
Carmen Rempel of the Kelowna Gospel Mission said the need to get people indoors is already “urgent.”
“The reality is operators are pretty darn stretched. We’ve got nothing left to give,” she said.
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