City staff have proposed wrought-iron fencing to enclose the parking lot at the south side of Nanaimo City Hall, along with the neighbouring SARC building across Dunsmuir St. The idea was firmly rejected by councillors. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Alex Rawnsley

"band-aid solution"

‘I can’t support this:’ Nanaimo councillors reject staff request for fencing around City Hall parking lots

Jul 16, 2025 | 1:22 PM

NANAIMO — City Councillors have unanimously turned down proposed fencing around two City-owned parking lots, despite staff safety concerns.

A staff recommendation called for parking lot upgrades including a nearly two-metre-tall, wrought-iron fence to be installed enclosing the parking lot on the south side of Nanaimo City Hall, as well as the neighbouring Service and Resource Centre (SARC) on Dunsmuir St., outside of business hours.

Speaking at Council’s finance and audit committee meeting on Wednesday, July 16, director of public safety Dave Laberge said the $412,000 project stems from repeated incidents involving individuals connected with the nearby overdose prevention site, which has threatened the safety of City staff.

“Police and CSOs are routinely finding weapons including bear spray, knives, brass knuckles and firearms on the street. These are the types of challenges that are occupational safety, we’re not talking about trips and falls and sprains and slippery surfaces, these are the type of issues that they’re trying to address.”

A map of the proposed fencing, showing it to be installed around the parking lots attached. (City of Nanaimo)

On the Lake

Training, fundraising take precedence in winter months for Nanaimo Rowing Club

7h ago

clean-up

Locals plan to remove shoreline hazard in Qualicum Beach

Dec 13, 2025

Wings Clipped

Seguin-Lescarbeau and Rimmer lead Clippers to Teddy Bear Toss win

Dec 13, 2025

Multiple City staff members highlighted several situations over recent months and years, including fights breaking out in the parking lot, damage to vehicles and property, fires being lit, human waste being left behind and other health and safety hazards.

Staff who typically work in the early morning or late evening hours, including custodial staff, were particularly at risk.

Supervising community safety officer Barry Hornby told councillors his teams spend a considerable amount of time clearing out the parking lot of people under the influence of drugs, or otherwise unable to properly care for themselves.

Some are found in dangerous positions.

“It’s traumatizing to [staff] when they come out and find somebody underneath their car, inside their car. They always have that ‘what if I hadn’t looked underneath my car, I could have drove [sic] over someone’.”

Paving and fencing around the SARC parking lot on Dunsmuir St. was also included in the staff recommended project. (Google Maps)

But despite concerns for staff safety, councillors were vehemently against the idea of fencing off the facility.

Coun. Hilary Eastmure was the most vocal, suggesting fencing a tiny percentage of the property would do nothing to address the issue.

“I think it’s just going to lead to migration around the building and new configurations and not actually solve anything, and we’ll be back talking about a bigger perimeter fence, which just really goes against everything I believe in as far as public access.”

She suggested the problem would just move “five feet sideways”.

“If people had a place to go, and if the Province was doing their job as far as providing adequate housing and health care for people, and if treatment and mental health supports were actually available without massive wait lists…we wouldn’t be considering Band Aid solutions like fences.”

Eastmure also took aim at an article published by The Canadian Press on Tuesday, July 15, which suggested Council was considering fencing the entire City Hall property.

The article’s headline, “Plan to fence off Nanaimo city hall to protect from overdose site disorder”, was called “completely irresponsible” by Eastmure, a former journalist herself.

“I know most journalists don’t write their own headlines, so I’m not blaming that reporter, but that’s on the editor, and many people don’t read past the headline. It’s unfortunate to me that we couldn’t even have this conversation before it was blown up into something that, again, paints Nanaimo as a city of fences.”

Bollards were proposed to block vehicle access after hours from Wallace St. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Coun. Sheryl Armstrong echoed Eastmure’s comments on the project overall, suggesting the $400,000 price tag was money which could be better spent.

Earlier in the same meeting, Councillors spent over two hours discussing the future of a drop-in hub on Nicol St.

“We just told our citizens that, you know what, suck it up for the next nine months, because you know, too bad, so sad. I didn’t hear anything about these calls from the RCMP that are involving staff members, I’ve yet to see a WorkSafe complaint coming in from staff members, this is the first time I’ve been hearing about these issues.”

The committee, led by Coun. Janice Perrino, rejected the staff recommendation and instead voted unanimously to provide no direction whatsoever, leaving the project in limbo.

Perrino said the long-term future of the drop-in hub, as well as the Overdose Prevention Site at 250 Albert St., must be addressed first.

“Until we can take care of this problem for our community, I can’t support this. Until we get that OPS closed, I can’t support this. What our staff go through is real, and we should be dealing with it, but I can’t deal with it until we take care of the community problem that we have.”

Mayor Leonard Krog suggested partial fencing was not the best bang for the City’s buck, and sends the wrong message.

“Putting up a fence reflects a contemplation that it’s going to continue, and indeed may presumably potentially get worse. I’m just not satisfied that the fence is going to provide the security and safety, or make much of a difference that makes it worthwhile doing it.”

Re-paving of the SARC parking lot was also included, as were sidewalk improvements, a ramp for improved accessibility, access gates and bollards on the Wallace St. entrance to City Hall to prevent after-hours vehicle access.

The parking lot, and access to City Hall through it, would have been fully open during regular business hours but closed and locked off overnight, on weekends and holidays.

Coun. Tyler Brown and Paul Manly were absent from the meeting, while Ian Thorpe left prior to the discussion due to a pre-existing commitment.

We’re on Bluesky! Stay up to date on news across central Vancouver Island through Bluesky, by following @NanaimoNewsNOW.bsky.social.

info@nanaimonewsnow.com

Follow us on: Twitter (X) | Bluesky | Facebook