The mayor of Charlottetown says P.E.I. Housing Minister Steven Myers is trying to “usurp the power” of his councillors when it comes to a decision about the Community Outreach Centre’s future.
On Tuesday, Myers told the provincial legislature and later CBC News that the centre will remain at its current location on Park Street whether Charlottetown councillors like it or not, saying: “It is not moving, and that’s the end of the story.”
But Mayor Philip Brown said the housing minister needs to be patient and wait for the city’s decision on approving the province’s request for a zoning amendment to let the centre providing services for vulnerable Islanders stay put.
“I’m not going to be forced to be in a defensive mode on this. We’re here to work together,” Brown told Island Morning‘s Mitch Cormier on Wednesday.
“When another level of government tries to usurp the power of a lower-level of government like a municipality, I think that needs to be discussed in the [P.E.I. Legislature], and hopefully our members of the Opposition will bring this up.”
The province provides funding to a third party, the Adventure Group, to run the centre, which is located near the emergency overnight housing shelter made up of modular housing units on Park Street. But provincial officials had to get zoning variances from the city to operate those two services at that location.
Philip Brown said a public meeting will be held on the future of services offered to vulnerable people at the Park Street site, but no matter what happens, a shelter and outreach centre will remain open until a decision is made. His comments come a day after new Housing Minister Steven Myers said the centre must stay where it is.
Without an extension, the variance allowing the outreach centre to operate at Park Street will expire in March, while the variance for the emergency shelter is set to expire next month.
Last summer, the province said it would not have time to move either facility before those deadlines, and asked the city to grant indefinite extensions for both.
Council hasn’t voted on that request. The original vote last January to let the outreach centre move from Euston Street to the new location ended in a tie broken by the mayor, with wording built into the resolution saying no extensions would be granted.
We can get into this sandbox fighting but… I want to stay on the high road and talk about where we’re going for the mid-term and the long-term.— Charlottetown Mayor Philip Brown
But the mayor said Wednesday that there is no danger of the outreach centre or emergency shelter closing before the city decides whether it will approve the province’s variance application.
“When someone says that it’s going to close down, people are going to be out in the streets, that’s not the case,” Brown said.
Charlottetown council hasn’t yet voted on a zoning variance extension for the Community Outreach Centre’s Park Street location, but P.E.I. Housing Minister Steven Myers says it doesn’t matter what councillors decide — he won’t take services away from desperate people in the midst of winter. CBC’s Kerry Campbell has the story.
“To think that we are going to be pushed or be told what to do — I don’t think that’s fair to this council, this city hall, this city. We can get into this sandbox fighting but… I want to stay on the high road and talk about where we’re going for the mid-term and the long-term.”
‘I don’t think that bodes well for democracy’
In October, Charlottetown councillors voted to have the zoning variance request go to a public meeting, which council said is the next step in the process.
A notice of motion was filed by Coun. Justin Muttart for Tuesday’s council meeting, asking his fellow councillors to postpone such a public meeting until late January to give residents living near Park Street more time to prepare.
Interim Green Party Leader Karla Bernard, who is also the MLA for the district that includes the Park Street site, said Myers’ comments undermined residents’ faith in that public meeting process.
“This just suggests that the minister can come in and just steamroll over any… decision that the city makes, and I don’t think that bodes well for democracy,” Bernard said.
“How are residents supposed to feel? The little voice that they had in the upcoming [public] meeting… what difference does it make what they say?”
Hal Perry, the interim Liberal leader, agreed it was premature of the housing minister to comment on the situation before the city has decided on the variance request.
“It does show this minister’s and this government’s true colours — that they’re going to do what they want and when they want and how they want, regardless of who they step over,” Perry said.
“I’m not sure what his intention was, other than bullying his way through.”