The Minister of Children and Family Development was in Dawson Creek Wednesday to meet with community social service providers, and hear directly from them the challenges confronting their programs.

“I’m really finding, especially in my role, it’s really important to get out here and see the cases,” said Minister Mary McNeil, who visited Fort St. John on Tuesday and Dawson Creek yesterday, making stops at South Peace Community Resource Society (SPCRS) and Reconnect Youth Services Centre.

During her stop, McNeil addressed the issue of affordable housing,

“Things are going really, really well economically but that comes with a whole bunch of social program issues, and it’s good for me to be here and see it,” noted McNeil.

“Affordability of housing is one of them, and it’s been a challenge, especially if you aren’t working on the patch it’s a challenge.”

“People think when the economy is going well everything is really smooth. Well, sometimes it’s the opposite,” she added.

Soaring housing prices and rental costs in the area are an ever-increasing burden on families; an issue that Stefan Pavlis, department manager of Community Supports and Assisted Living for SPCRS hopes is addressed before it turns into a crisis.

“The oil and gas industry, as much good as it’s done for this community, it does have some negative effects, and one of the effects is it drives housing prices up,” said Pavlis.

“In the next five to 10 years there is going to be a major housing crisis here, and a lot of people are going to be out of housing.”

Pavlis explained that families, and single mothers in particular, are finding it difficult to contend with rental prices blown out of proportion due to patch workers that are able to afford, and willing to pay $2,000 a month.

“A lot of people that don’t have the money can’t afford that, where are they going to live?”

He said there is good affordable housing in cities such as Grande Prairie and Vancouver, and there should be more in Dawson Creek.

McNeil didn’t offer a solution to the issue, but did say that her ministry is looking at where to make up funding to make room for future projects.

Due to the province’s budgetary measures the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) – along with other departments – has endured stagnant spending. The Ministry’s current budget is just over $1.3 billion.

“It’s been a challenge for not only our provincial government but other provincial governments across Canada and we are doing really well here,” said McNeil.

“What it’s meant for Ministry of Children and Families is that we’ve had a status quo budget for the last two to three years, which means we have to be a lot more collaborative and work closer with our partners to make sure we are spending dollars the best way.”

“We have to take a look and look under what programs we’ve been doing for the last 20 years and see if they’re still effective,” she said. “We’re working on it, we’re being smarter with our money because we have to.”

SPCRS depends heavily on funding from the MCFD for support of its programs.

While Pavlis said cuts to services haven’t been made they may be coming.

“We haven’t cut services yet but it’s getting to the point where we are going to have to cut services, because we can’t pay our workers,” said Pavlis. “It could be interesting in the coming years.”

He says it is tough to stick to a contract where he has to deliver a program according to the province’s mandate, despite not enough money being provided to run the specific program.

“There is an interesting shortfall there, but we do what we can,” said Pavlis. “At the end of the day our job is to provide social programs and services to our community, and we make it happen.”

Pavlis said that in terms of affordable housing it is an issue that needs to be quickly addressed, and hopes government will step in.

“There’s a shortage of it, and I’m hoping that the powers that be in this area see that in the near future there is going to be a snowball effect,” he said. “It’s happening now and our organization is picking up the pieces.

“Now we’re starting to see the effects and it will be interesting to see if we can catch this problem before it gets worse.”