"This project is an experiment that puts residents, patients, and vulnerable people at risk" ~~ Conservative MLA Sharon Hartwell

Bulkley Valley–Stikine MLA Sharon Hartwell is calling on Housing Minister Christine Boyle and BC Housing to immediately halt construction of what she calls an “experimental shelter” being forced on the people of Smithers without consultation, safety planning, or accountability.

“This so-called shelter is not a solution. It is a reckless social experiment being imposed on a northern community that has already been stretched to the limit,” said Hartwell. “Families, doctors, and small business owners were blindsided by a $700,000 decision made in Victoria without consultation or care for local impacts. People are angry and they have every reason to be.”

The shelter, funded through BC Housing, is being installed near homes and medical offices without community input. The site will also include a tent that will support the provision of so called “safe supply” drugs for users of the shelter.

In a letter to government, local physicians described it as “deeply irresponsible and poorly planned,” warning it poses serious risks to patient safety, community security, and access to care. They wrote that the shelter was approved “without transparency, without consultation, and without any plan to mitigate the consequences.”

“This project is an experiment that puts residents, patients, and vulnerable people at risk,” said Hartwell. “Doctors, first responders, and residents are raising red flags, and the NDP government’s response has been silence. That is not leadership, it is negligence.”

Hartwell said the government’s priorities are backwards, noting that while the NDP found $700,000 for this experimental shelter, it has failed to fund essential health care and emergency services elsewhere in the North, including the Kitwanga ambulance station.

“People here are watching ambulance stations close, hospitals struggle, and paramedics work overtime. The government’s answer is to bankroll a chaotic and untested shelter project that will do nothing to address the need for treatment,” said Hartwell. “This is what happens when decisions are made by bureaucrats in Victoria who never have to live with the consequences.”

Hartwell called for an immediate pause and full review of the shelter project, including it’s approval process, lack of consultation, and oversight from BC Housing and the Ministry of Housing.

“The people of Smithers deserve real solutions, not reckless experiments. The NDP’s ‘experimental shelter’ is the latest example of a government that governs by ideology and arrogance, not by listening to communities,” Hartwell said. “If Minister Boyle will not act, she will have to explain to northern families why she is funding dangerous experiments instead of essential services. What we need is real investment in treatment, and mental health professionals, not another place to enable people to stay in this cycle of harm.”