By Daryl Major

Complaints continue to come to Parksville City Hall about overnight campers

Jan 19, 2017 | 9:02 AM

PARKSVILLE – Parksville’s public lands, like the Community Park, are always a draw and that has put the city in a tough spot.

They are getting more and more complaints about people sleeping in those public areas, but there isn’t much they can do. Mayor Marc Lefebvre says the complaints are not a cause for arrest, so basically their hands are tied.

“We do have limitations,” he said. “We’re trying to cope from a compassionate point of view, at least that’s my take on it. We have to remember that we’re dealing with human beings in many cases, for no fault of their own or through drugs or through mental illness, are out there looking for help and looking for some sort of assistance.”

A Supreme Court ruling last year allowed people to sleep or camp out on public property overnight between the hours of 7 p.m. and 9 a.m. before moving on, but Lefebvre says that hasn’t been the case.

“We’ve had some folk who have decided when they bunk in certain areas, they decided not to move,” he says. “And that has caused individuals and groups of individuals to get very frustrated because it’s usually near homes and things like that. And they’re necessarily worried because there are objects like needles lying around.”

Making an impact

Nanaimo woman publishes books to open awareness of neurodiverse children

7h ago

iconic voice

Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole, a welcome voice for a half-century, dead at 90

14h ago

first response

New staffing model on Gabriola Island hires local paramedics for enhanced patient care

19h ago

Lefebvre says legally, they can’t do much because the littering is not a cause for arrest, adding as extreme weather shelters close for the season and the weather warms up, the numbers could increase.

“I think that’s going to be a logical extension of what’s happening. We have these issues of poverty and addiction and mental illness but we do have the odd individual that says ‘I’m not going anywhere, I’m staying outside. I’ll find a place to stay, I don’t want to go inside.’ And those are the tough, tough issues that we’re dealing with.”

Lefebvre says they will be launching a public awareness campaign around the legal constraints facing municipalities and outlining future action to be undertaken by council.