As winter looms across B.C., some political leaders call for year-round emergency weather shelters  | CBC News

As cold, wet weather hits most parts of British Columbia, some elected officials are calling for the provincial government to keep extreme weather shelters open year-round. 

B.C. Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau told CBC News that not keeping those shelters open means municipalities have to scramble to find locations, staff and resources when temperatures hit a certain temperature. 

“It is a really inefficient way of making sure that people are literally not freezing to death,” she told On the Coast host Gloria Macarenko last week. 

“We have to do so much better than that.”

Emergency winter shelters in the province are funded through B.C. Housing and run by non-profit organizations across communities.

Some communities in B.C. have been struggling to find cold weather shelters this year. On Vancouver Island, the Comox Regional District issued an urgent call to help find an extreme weather shelter for the winter. 

Last fall, winter shelter operators said they were at a breaking point due to lack of funding and staff. They said bringing in people from the cold and letting them out by spring is “an exercise in futility.”

Weather extremes not just in winter

Supporting Furstenau’s position, B.C. Green Party MLA for Saanich North and the Islands Adam Olsen said Monday on The Early Edition’s political panel that extreme weather doesn’t just happen in winter. 

“We have started to see much, much more extremes in the summer,” Olsen told host Stephen Quinn. “People need to be able to get out of the elements … whether it be extreme heat or extreme cold.”

Olsen said homelessness isn’t a new issue in the province.

“As appetizing as it is for me to blame the B.C. NDP or blame the B.C. United Liberals, this has been a growing problem in our society for decades, founded on a socioeconomic system that is producing the results that we have if we don’t provide stable places for people to live,” he said.

Former B.C. NDP cabinet member Mo Sihota, also speaking on the political panel, agreed that shelters should ideally be permanent. 

Sihota said of the 5,000 shelters the B.C. NDP has created, nearly 4,000 are permanent. 

“We work with municipalities to look at where the problems are the most acute and we provide services in those communities,” he said, adding that the province has converted temporary shelters in Kelowna, Vancouver and Abbotsford into permanent ones. 

‘Missing the forest for the trees’

But B.C. Conservative Party president Aisha Estey questions the B.C. NDP’s policies and their effect on the number of people experiencing homelessness in the province. 

Also speaking on The Early Edition’s political panel, Estey said homelessness is “a symptom of some major policy failures under the NDP.”

“We’re missing the forest for the trees on this,” Estey said. 

The cost of living has “skyrocketed” under an NDP government, Estey said, adding that drug decriminalization policies have added to the number of people “roaming the streets.”

“This is a Band-Aid solution,” she told host Stephen Quinn. 

“What’s stopping another 5,000 people from becoming homeless next year?”

Dianne Watts, a former B.C. Conservative MP and mayor of Surrey, said homelessness is a multifaceted issue. 

“You have a finite amount of funds. So what are you going to do with them?” she said.

“You need to build supportive housing. You need to build affordable housing and rental stock, but you also need shelters when you have extreme weather.”