Homeless camps back on the agenda at special council meeting

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on August 9, 2022.

Herald photo by Al Beeber A jogger uses the Civic Centre track Monday against the background of the homeless encampment.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

A special meeting of city council today at 9 a.m. will address a couple of hot-topic matters including homeless camps and a ward boundary commission.

The meeting is open to the public and will be streamed online.

The first matter on the agenda is third reading of Bylaw 6374 – a bylaw to establish the ward boundary commission.

Council did first and second readings on the bylaw on July 26. It initially gave direction to establish the commission at council’s June 7 meeting.

The purpose of the commission is to provide a detailed report to council on a possible electoral ward system.

At June’s meeting, council approved a one-time budget of up to $297,000 for the commission. If the bylaw is approved today, the commission will “examine, analyze, engage stakeholders and produce a final report on the use of a ward system to be submitted to council,” says the agenda item.

If approved today, the commission will consist of eight members with seven of them appointed by council from members of the general public. The city clerk will be a non-voting commission member.

Various skills and backgrounds of public members may be considered including political science, municipal governance, legal, general research, statistics, urban planning, social science, methodology, democracy or a representation of life experiences within the city or a ward system generally.

Council will also today receive a report from administration on an encampment response as directed by city council at its July 26 meeting.

At that meeting, council asked for more information on several matters including the allocation of $470,000 to look into establishing a sanctioned encampment space.

Council also asked for more information on research that its department of Community Social Development has completed regarding strategies from other municipalities and other options.

Administration was asked to look into the creation of a community task force and a written request to the province to form a collaborative local and provincial working group to look into solutions for homelessness and affordable housing.

According to administration’s report, if the $470,000 is approved the encampment space project would be operational in late November.

Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter