File photo (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

FORTUNE DRIVE HOUSING

Housing Minister Kahlon makes no promises ahead of council debate on Fortune Drive supportive housing

Feb 25, 2025 | 4:18 PM

KAMLOOPS — Next Tuesday (March 4), Kamloops city council is expected to discuss the rezoning for three properties along Fortune Drive that, if approved, would make way for a new supportive housing build.

At its last meeting, council stated a desire to see the proposed 54-bed building be used for recovery-focused housing, and not a wet shelter or harm reduction site.

“I think it’s been quite clear from some of the operators in the community publicly, that they would plan to pursue supportive recovery housing — so to say that this site would be a wet site or a harm reduction site, there is absolutely no guarantee of that whatsoever,” stated Carmin Mazzotta, assistant director of social and community development, on February 4.

Since then, British Columbia’s minister of housing, Ravi Kahlon has seemingly slapped the hand of council.

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“It would be premature to make program decisions at this time as community needs can change during the planning timeline,” reads a letter from Kahlon, dated February 21.

While the minister did state an openness to exploring a recovery model, there were no assurances.

“Meeting community needs continues to be the driving factor behind operating-model decisions. BC Housing informs me that data produced through the Coordinated Access and Assessment process can now be used to determine the level of need in each community for specific program models, including recovery-oriented environments and more,” continued the letter to city council.

City staff have also noted in the past that the province could override the council’s eventual decision and build the project regardless.

“If it’s just simply denied, there are all sorts of different implications there,” Development, Engineering and Sustainability Director Marvin Kwiatkowski told council on February 4. “To be super frank, there is a good chance the province could override the council’s decision. They have that ability given that we are behind in our housing targets.”

Just before the letter from the minister was set to be discussed on Tuesday (Feb. 25), Councillor Bill Sarai called for a closed meeting, citing government-to-government relations — though it should be noted it was not specifically stated to be with regards to the Kahlon letter.