Welcome back to Monday. I caught the Cougars Friday night victory over Lethbridge, and heard the crowd was in the range of 4,500 — still about 1,000 less than capacity but signficantly more than the last time I went. I’m genuinely curious if/when they will start selling out, or at least coming close to it, though it seems they are on their way.

Then on Saturday I went to the arts market and bought a cool shirt from Nechako Design (sort of like this one), was tempted by the mulled wine on Ritual’s menu and then went down to the river where we skipped rocks on ice, which is something you should do if you never have because it is one of the coolest sounds in the world. I haven’t looked into it but I am 95 per cent certain this has to be how curling started. I did, however, look up why it sounds so cool and found this article and video which is pretty interesting.

And with that, let’s get into the week.

‘A cruel joke’

Neil Godbout writes in the Citizen that giving an “Affordable Housing Champion” award to Together We Stand, the grassroots group that works with people living in Mocassin Flats and other encampments, is “a cruel joke”":

Doesn’t it? Let’s go back to Godbout’s own words:

Let’s look at that closer:

Closer:

So this group helped prevent homeless people from being displaced unless more affordable housing was built. What’s the award called again? Affordable Housing Champion? And they… championed the creation of affordable housing by preventing the city from simply displacing the problem on two separate occassions?

I think the confusion may lie in the fact that Godbout is coming from the point of view that because this group has argued encampments are better than having to move around from spot to spot every single night while only being allowed to keep what you can carry, they are champions of encampments as an overall solution to homelessness. Indeed, he later calls them as “a group that actively enables and encourages fellow Prince George residents to continue to live in the unsafe squalor of Moccasin Flats.” The question, though, is what is the alternative?

If you look at, say, 50 people living in Moccasin Flats and you believe that if Moccasin Flats didn’t exist, then all or even most of those 50 people would suddenly be in safe, warm beds, and those who are dealing with addiction or mental health problems that prevent them from finding appropriate shelter would suddenly find a way or be more likely to get a handle on those issues and get into appropriate shelter, then yes, you might see the continued existence of the camp as a cruelty. If, on the other hand, you are of the opinion that if the encampment were to be bulldozed those 50 people wouldn’t find themselves in appropriate housing but instead dispersed throughout the city, woken up daily by bylaw officers or RCMP telling them to move on, only able to keep what possessions they can carry with them and spending a greater amount of their time focused on pure survival, then you might start to see a camp as not a good option, per se, but a less bad one.

That was actually the heart of the court ruling that protected Moccasin Flats. The judge looked at the evidence provided by the city and by Together We Stand and saw, on balance, reality reflected the latter situation — homelessness exists in the city not because people want to live in camps but because they don’t have other options. And with that information, the judge ruled that a camp is a less bad option than simply pushing people along when they have nowhere else to go. The ruling explicitly left the door open for the camp to be shut down if and when more appropriate, affordable housing became available. And now the city, the province, whoever are in a position where they must provide that housing if they want the camp to cease to exist. And if that day comes — and the city and province certainly like to say they are working towards it — it will have been spurred along by Together We Stand forcing the issue.

But I should also say, this editorial, and what I’ve written here so far, flattens the work of Together We Stand, which is not focused solely on the protection of the camp. Volunteers with the group — and they are all volunteers, this is not a professional organization — advocate for the creation of new housing and shelters in the community, and work with people who are in the camp to help naviagte the process of applying for and qualifying for that housing. They empower people who are homeless to share their feedback on their needs directly with leaders and service providers so there can be a better understanding of what resources are lacking in the community that could end homlesssness. And yes, they help provide basic necessities like food, warmth and toilets to people in the meantime, on the understanding that this isn’t going to be solved immediately. Or, again, if you look at it another way, it’s all a cruel, sick joke. Perspectives differ.

Ok, but is the province actually doing enough to make the need for encampments go away?

Councillor Cori Ramsay says she is planning to get back to blogging again and in her first post in a while points to the province’s legislation, called the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act (No. 4), 2023:

Sound familiar? It’s basically what Prince George has already been forced into via the courts, only now the same rules will apply to all cities. However Ramsay — who has consistently been one of the most sympathetic toward the need for non-punitive legislation aimed at people without homes at the council table — has concerns about the way this is being pushed through with talking to local governments about what this will actually mean for them. And she’s not alone. Union of B.C. Municipalities president Trish Mandewo, also a councillor in Port Coquitlam, wrote an op-ed in the Vancouver Sun about just this:

The rental crisis comes to beer

Let’s stick with the affordability theme, btu from another angle. When I was reporting on Prince George’s Deadfall Brewing’s win at the Canada Beer Cup, one of the people I talked to was the previous years winner — Callister Brewing in the East Vancouver neighbourhood. One of the things he told me is that if he were starting again, he would probably do what Deadfall did — start up in an Interior community, in a small location, where you could just be the neighbourhood brewery and not have to worry about the costs and competiveness that come with being in a big city. And now, Callister Brewing says it is giving up on craft beer in Vancouver altogether:

It’s not just Callister. According to the executive director of the Canadian Craft Brewers Association, anywhere between 10 and 20 per cent of small brewers are facing the same future, again because of high rent as well as other rising costs.

A few years ago, I wrote about how as bigger cities were hitting a saturation point for breweries, those who set up shop in smaller communities were finding success and it looks like this trend is continuing. What I wonder is what it will mean for the industry overall — will you start to see places like Prince George or Cranbrook be the incubators of the industry where people are able to experiment and grow in ways they can’t in bigger cities with more pressing cost concerns? Also, with the above article noting that Callister is planning to pivot to the more profitable craft soda industry, how long before we get some of that action up here?

The 35th most livable city in Canada

The Globe and Mail published what they say is a data-driven guide to the most livable cities in Canada — both overall, and for different stages of life like raising kids, starting a business, and retiring. The factors considered range from average income to average house prices to number of movie theatres and doctors available per person. Where does Prince George rank on this overall? 35th which is, I’ll be honest, higher than I expected having been conditioned by years of the city not doing so well on these sorts of lists. And this is pretty good when you realize the list is literally looking at basically every city of any size in the country (except, for some reason, Montreal?) The relative low cost of housing and lower crime rate (yes, believe it or not, we are not the worst place for this) helped, as did access to family doctors (relative), while we were hurt on things like walkability/public transit. In fact, aside from Fort St. John and Penticton, we were the highest-ranked B.C. city outside of Greater Vancouver and Vancouver Island. Cities we are more often compared to were quite a bit lower — Kamloops at 61, Nanaimo at 63 and Kelowna way down at 84. Burnaby, by the way, was down at 72, so take that, disaster-resilient-city.

Speaking of, in the comments on that post, 4streegrrl writes:

Quick news:

• The school board will be holding an election for chair and vice-chair on Tuesday.

• The province has started negotiations with Australian power company Fortescue over a hydrogen plant the company wants to build in Prince George.

• The Citizen reports on three fun items from weekend craft fairs: whimsical bird houses, driftwood art, and emotional support pickles.

• 87-year-old Dave Milne walked University Hill pretty much every day.

• Rogers Sugar strike starting to impact local bakers, though unclear if it’s a true shortage or panic buying.

• Meals on Wheels is expanding into College Heights.

• Prince George woman ranked as best powerlifter in Canadian history.

• Volunteers needed for 2024 Para Biathlon World Championships and Nordic World Cup Finals.

Today’s song is a festive update of a 2000s alt-classic.

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