Rob- Let’s start with the big issue right now, the big event in town, everybody’s talking about it. The Souls Harbor Rescue Mission, the owners and operators of the Riverside Mission, a public meeting about homelessness, addictions and future shelters will be taking place in the coming weeks.
After a heated debate among City Councilors on Monday night on July the 8th in front of a packed house in council chambers — I’m reading from Discover Moose Jaw right now.
The city received a 200-page petition from citizens in Moose Jaw asking for a public meeting to discuss the construction and future operation of Soul’s Harbor Rescue Mission at the addresses of 212 and 218 River Street West.
The petition asking that the city and City Council consider re-zoning the property to a “contract zoning district” for commercial purposes and not community services or supportive housing.
It’s a controversial thing, and frankly, I can see both sides of the argument. We need somewhere for our homeless and needy people to go on the other side of that coin, there are people in downtown Moose Jaw that don’t want that facility in downtown Moose Jaw.
So, like I said, I can see both sides of the argument. What’s next in this process? City Council did approve a public meeting to discuss this further, correct?
Maryse- Yes, that’s correct. So, on Monday the 8th of July at council, it was a report that was submitted by administration to Council on the petition that we received.
So, for me there’s two arguments for what happened at City Council. The one is the report from administration that analyzed the petition, and yes, as you correctly mentioned, the petition was a request to hold the public meeting.
It turned out in the end, unfortunately, the petition was insufficient. So, council did not have to act on this petition. But as you mentioned, it’s loud and clear, people want to discuss this issue and council made and supported a motion that we will have a public meeting.
So, we can expect, Moose Jaw residents can expect, that there’ll be an announcement shortly, that we will hold a public meeting to discuss the topics that were mentioned at the City Council on homelessness and safety, security in the downtown of Moose Jaw and that our residents will be able to come and speak to councilors.
Rob- That's an important part of the process. Communication is so important, especially when you’re living in a city where people are so passionate about their downtown.
Maryse- They are passionate, and we saw how vibrant our downtown is. We just had the Sidewalk Days, a really big crowd. I was there on Saturday, I was there every day, but especially Saturday with everyone there and we have to preserve that.
I think also, as you know, there is an issue like we are seeing worldwide, the increase of homelessness and some social issues. We are not immune to it sadly, and we need to have a discussion on what we can do.
The public meeting, just to be clear, is a time for Council to listen to the input from the residents, from business owners, from people that will be there. It is not a binding process, but it’s a communication and a discussion avenue.
Rob- We'll find out soon when and where that meeting will take place, right?
Maryse- That's correct. So, if we were going to go with the Normal Cities Act, if the petition would have been sufficient, then this public meeting would have happened within 30 days of Council making the decision. You can expect it’s going to be fairly close to that, even though we don’t have to follow The Act because the petition was insufficient. We will stick close to the parameters of the Cities Act.
Rob- Ok, very good. We’ll be following up on this in the upcoming episode I’m sure.