City Council to explore options on downtown public washroom access

Prince George City Council will take a look at options when it comes to public washroom access in downtown Prince George.

At tonight’s (Monday) meeting, Prince George City Council was presented with the results of a public survey on downtown public washroom access.

The survey was conducted from February 9 to March 2, and received more than 91,000 impressions on the City’s social media pages, as well 1,512 responses.

According to the results, 51.6 per cent of respondents indicated more public washrooms are needed downtown, while 43 per cent felt additional facilities are not necessary. The remaining 5.4 per cent were not sure.

“When it comes to how a washroom should be delivered, there was no single highly preferred option, however there were some that emerged on top, so support was fairly evenly distributed amongst the optional choices,” said Community Engagement Coordinator Imogene Broberg-Hull, who was presenting the report.

The option of integrating a public washroom into an existing facility received the most support at just 24.4 per cent, followed closely by a staffed washroom at Canada Games Plaza at 22.6 per cent.

On the question of “What one-time installation cost would you be comfortable with the City spending on a public washroom?”, only 54.5 per cent responded to the question.

Of the 824 answers, more than half (52.18 per cent) said they would be willing to spend up to $250,000. 31.31 per cent said between $250,000 and $500,000.

A breakdown of the survey results can be found here.

Council was also presented with a number of options in the report:

• Option 1 – Receive for Information: Maintain status quo
• Option 2 – Proceed with planning and report back: Identify a preferred approach which could include new infrastructure and/or utilizing existing facilities, and direct administration to return to Council with capital and operating cost estimates.
• Option 3 – Proceed with funding: Direct staff to add as a funded project incorporated into the proposed 2027 capital plan.

Councillor Tim Bennett said his support of public washroom access has been well documented over the current term, and moved the second option.

“I don’t want to create a report just to come back to have this topic debated again,” Bennet said.

“Option two gives staff the opportunity to look at a preferred approach as to the cost-effectiveness, what could be done, perhaps aligning with what we’re hearing from residents along that $250,000 mark.”

City Manager Walter Babicz responded, saying staff would present findings to City Council in time to include a project for the 2027 capital plan.

Councillor Trudy Klassen asked about if directed engagement was done, specifically with service agencies or downtown businesses.

Broberg-Hull said the survey in-question was meant for the broader public to respond to, and engagements with downtown agencies was done previously.

Councillor Cori Ramsay said with lots of new supportive housing coming online, washroom access has increased already.

“There’s a lot of added washroom access within the temporary housing site, within the subsidization that Council provides for PG NFC for washroom services and storage facilities. There’s also, separate from that, there’s washrooms in the Two Rivers Gallery, in the public library, if you need to use the washroom you can go to Tourism, and ask them for access to the washroom in the Civic Plaza and they’ll provide that, there’s also private access to washrooms within storefronts and stuff like that,” Ramsay said.

“I’m looking at the survey data and it’s really 50/50 split, but when I had read through the comments, specifically the responses, it is a very firm no from a lot of people that responded to it.”

Ramsay said she was willing to explore the option, but is trying to understand the problem that needs to be solved.

“We have brought on a lot of access in the last five years, and we used to hear about this a lot. This used to be super vocal, and we’ve been hearing about it less and less, because I think the solutions are working,” she said.

“Is this as much of a problem that we still think it is, or is it just contentious because it’s always been contentious?”

Ramsay said she would also be interested in providing educational materials on where public washrooms may be in downtown Prince George.

Councillor Kyle Sampson said he agrees access has increased, and said this is not currently a top funding priority to him.

“We have invested millions of dollars, be it in civic facilities or in provincial facilities,” Sampson said.

“We’ve invested in housing developments, we’ve invested in non-profits, with grants and what be, there are facilities available and I do see that this has been less of an issue, not saying there’s not any issue, but it’s definitely become less of an issue because of the investments being made.”

Sampson added he would rather see investments made that have greater purpose and can offer ancillary services than spending money on washrooms alone.

Councillor Brian Skakun said a downtown business owner might have a different perspective than someone in another part of the City.

“I think if you survey downtown businesses only, the amount of defecation that’s going on in their storefronts, back alleys, doors, everything like that, I think for me, that’s a tipping point to say I want to push this to at least a referral to administration to get something back that’s concrete,” Skakun said.

“Someone that might be on the Hart Highway or another area of town, it might not mean as much as much to them, so I think we need to definitely move forward on this.”

Councillor Garth Frizzell said investing in public washroom access would be good for everyone.

“That supports families, seniors, workers, and visitors alike, it’s going to keep our businesses more welcoming and our public spaces more inclusive,” he said.

“It’s a small convenience, it’s got a big impact, it’s the kind of infrastructure that we need downtown.”

Councillor Ron Polillo said like the respondents he was split on the issue, but he was leaning toward having options returned.

“I think we need to at least go there to explore some viable, workable options, and I think probably, what would work best, would be a partnership, whether it’s with a non-profit or others, to make something work,” he said.

“Simply opening a Civic Facility like City Hall or Canada Games Plaza, I think we’ve tried that before and in my opinion, it did not go well.”

Polillo said he agreed with Councillor Sampson there’s other important issues facing the City.

Sampson got back into the queue, and said his perspective was the crux of the issue was access for homeless and vulnerable populations.

“If we have a standalone toilet somewhere downtown, this is not a public washroom in a park space where families are accessing it because that’s their only option, patrons and customers of business and facilities in the downtown are utilizing those facilities and businesses’ washrooms,” he said.

“I’m going to call a spade a spade, I think the issue that we’re talking about is does the marginalized or homeless population have access to washrooms? That’s, I think, what the crux of the discussion is. It’s not acceptable to crap on somebody’s doorstep, and the problem’s not going to be solved though by simply plopping a washroom down somewhere in the downtown and saying you’ve got to walk a couple blocks, we need to share that that’s not acceptable in this community.”

Sampson added that would come through enforcement, better collaboration with social services, and looking at this as getting people to access already available washrooms.

Councillor Bennet disagreed that this just was about supporting washroom use for just vulnerable communities.

“It is more how do we support our citizens as a whole,” Bennett said.

“We have invested significant money into facilities, in particular in our downtown core, we’ve invested in washrooms across the City, however those aren’t necessarily open to members of the public, parents with young kids, seniors, I was at Duchess Park this past weekend after a judo tournament with my kids at the park, and seeing we invested in washrooms there and they were not open to the public yet, and having to see families drive to three or four places before coming back to find somewhere they can go to the washroom.”

Bennett said while this particular survey and motion focuses on Downtown Prince George, he felt there’s a need to have a conversation on where they can further improve washroom facilities in parks and across the City.

Councillor Susan Scott said she was conflicted as well.

“On a recent trip to England, my husband and I walked well over two kilometres trying to find a washroom, it was not a pretty day,” she said.

“As has been alluded to, we’re operating on the assumption that if we create a washroom that people can access, that they’re going to use it. I’m not so sure, because the ones that have been listed, they all have hours.”

Mayor Simon Yu said correct comments were made by all Councillors throughout the debate.

“Councillor Sampson is correct, we are talking about 24/7 access for the homeless population, let’s call it what it is, and because it is 24/7 in a winter city, people do not control their bowel movements just because it’s the middle of the night, they do need a place to go,”

“Councillor Bennett is also correct, we need washrooms in other places as well. The survey indicates there’s six hotspots in the downtown area, and the public seems willing to spend $250,000 maximum to solve the problem. To me, the solution should be to explore all options, perhaps including some mobile facilities that could be used for the parks and then during certain hours, putting them in certain hot spots, and daytimes, they can be removed because there’s other places available. Solutions are always there, we just need to explore it.”

Council voted in favour for the second option, with just Councillor Sampson opposed.