Residents’ questions answered during town hall in Smithers

Bulkley Valley-Stikine MLA Sharon Hartwell hosted a town hall on January 23rd to help bridge the gap between residents and government representatives.

At the meeting was RCMP Staff Sergeant Ryan Law, B.C. Conservatives Interim Leader Trevor Halford, Smithers Mayor Gladys Atrill, Telkwa Mayor Leroy Dekens, and Regional District of Bulkley Nechako Electoral Area ‘A’ Director Stoney Stoltenberg.

Several questions were asked by residents touching on funding, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), climate change, homes and homelessness, Highway 35, and more.

All of the elected officials were at the BC Natural Resources Forum the day prior, which Halford explained has a major part in where the province gets its funding and how it can reduce the current deficit.

“It’s through the work of the private sector that we get back to where we need to be. It’s not through growing government.” Halford said.

Hartwell echoed Halford’s statement, adding Premiere David Eby said the northwest will be critical to help heal the province’s financial woes.

Dekens added a lot of the private sector money the province gets is from the north and would like to see more of it return to northern communities.

Atrill responded that the Resource Benefits Alliance (RBA) was one of the major pushes by northern communities to bring some of those funds back to the region.

“That resulted in $250 million shared among the local governments from Haida Gwaii to Vanderhoof for infrastructure,” Atrill said.

She added without it, several projects in Smithers wouldn’t have been possible like the Princess Street Upgrade.

Hartwell also mentioned wanting to have the RBA put into perpetuity and have our turn to reap the benefits of the rewards coming out of the north.

Around DRIPA, Halford said the B.C. Conservatives are still pushing for a full repeal of the legislation.

Hartwell added Lheidli T’enneh Chief Dolleen Logan said during the final panel of the resources forum, the province didn’t need it.

“She said, ‘We would like to sit down in a room, have a conversation, sort out what we needed, and get on with business as usual,'” said Hartwell.

Another question asked was around Climate Change and what the province is doing about it.

Halford said the Clean B.C. initiative hasn’t worked and he didn’t know what changes would be coming for the electric vehicle mandate in the province.

“It’s about over promising and underdelivering. I think we’re all environmentally conscious and we do that in our own way,” he said.

Atrill added Smithers is continuing to work on reducing costs on various items, including keeping assets operational, along with supporting active transportation.

“In my opinion, climate change is a scam,” said Stoltenberg.

“There are things we can do to mitigate that but for the most part, when it comes to climate change, it’s just somebody getting rich off the tax payer.”

With building homes, Halford said the main costs seen are the built in government costs with most being imposed by the province.

Both Halford and Hartwell said those costs need to be looked into and work be done to reduce them for the future.

Atrill added the municipal government’s job is to impose the legislation the province passes which is then given to communities.

“There are some things we have done over the last few years in an effort to make housing more attainable and that includes a full rezoning for multi-family,” said Atrill.

She and Dekens mentioned the possibility of more row houses to help with affordability even if it’s not what some buyers prefer.

A question was also raised about the possibility of the Smithers RCMP getting a new detachment which Law said is at capacity with its current members.

“There’s two possibilities to go about doing that. One would be having the province provide the funding for a new building,” said Law.

“An application to have that done has been put in and we’re in a priority list but I can tell you we aren’t at the top.”

The other method would see the town construct a police services building which would then be leased to the province.

Concerns around Highway 37 were raised with the current condition of the road and concerns about road users.

Hartwell said provincial budget talks are coming up where she hopes funds will be allocated to maintenance and improvements on the highway.

Law added there are random enforcement blitzes performed by the RCMP along Highway 37 but could see more happening as well.

With the tent encampment in Smithers, Atrill said work has been done in the past to find alternate locations to where it is beside Veterans Park.

“Unless we have a place to put the people who are in the encampment, we will maintain an encampment because we are legally obligated to,” said Atrill.

She added a plan is underway by BC Housing to build a new supportive housing unit with shelter beds expected to be complete in 2028.

In total, about 75 people attended the event with Witset Deputy Chief Kayla Mitchell and Health Services Administrator Cormac Hikisch unable to attend.