By Spencer Sterritt

Wildfire smoke, affordable housing, Trans Mountain loom over Nanaimo cabinet retreat

Aug 22, 2018 | 10:18 AM

NANAIMO — Tough conversations will happen over the next few days in Nanaimo under ominously smoky skies.

In a press conference Wednesday morning at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre, Premier John Horgan said the wildfire smoke hanging over Nanaimo and the entire province was top of mind for everyone at the federal Liberal cabinet retreat.

When asked by NanaimoNewsNOW, Horgan said health minister Adrien Dix is working to find more methods of relief for people suffering under the smoke.

“It’s not just risk to property, people and wildlife in the fire areas. The impacts of the fire season are being felt in our urban centres even if you’re many kilometres away from the flames,” he said.

The air quality in the province is currently considered some of the worst in the world as hundreds of fires rage in the Interior and smoke filters in from all over the world.

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The cabinet retreat is happening only blocks away from Discontent City, the downtown Nanaimo tent city which is considered one of the largest in the province.

Horgan said the provincial government has implemented numerous strategies to help alleviate the affordable housing crisis, but acknowledged the local difficulties in implementing the plan to build supportive housing for the most vulnerable.

“Unfortunately we weren’t able to get cooperation from the City of Nanaimo on taking us up on our offer of putting in place modular housing for the hard to home. With those units would come the services people would need if they have mental health or addictions challenges, or if they need help with resume creation or access to the job market.

“We’re doing that in other cities around British Columbia and I’m hopeful we can do it in Nanaimo.”

Earlier this year Nanaimo’s city council rejected a plan placing 44-units of supportive housing in the Chase River area. The City maintained they’re working to find a more suitable location for the housing, though no alternate site has yet been publicly discussed.

A major issue hanging over the retreat is the ongoing court battle between the provincial and federal government over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

Horgan said he once again raised his issues with the project to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, though he said nothing concrete came from the ongoing discussions and said it wasn’t a negotiation.

“We didn’t engage in that type of discussion today. That’s not to say we won’t in the future. Today and yesterday’s meeting was not about negotiation, it was an acknowledgement that we continue to have our point of view.”

He said while his government is concerned about installing so much pipeline through the province, he’s more concerned about the impact of “increased tanker traffic and the consequences of a catastrophic spill.”

A protest is planned for Wednesday about the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion outside the conference centre.

NanaimoNewsNOW will be at the cabinet retreat for all of Wednesday and Thursday until it finishes.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit