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Neil Godbout: City made Moccasin Flats fiasco worse

Considering the political and legal risk to the city, the surprising lack of hands-on involvement from a city manager with a legal background, as well as mayor and council, is appalling.
Moccasin Flats cleanup
A loader dumps debris from Moccasin Flats into a truck on Nov. 17, 2021.

What was the City of Prince George’s true goal in its efforts last November to clear out the Lower Patricia homeless encampment? Was it to get the inhabitants of Moccasin Flats safely housed before winter fully set in or was it to score a political win and be seen taking action?

The emails obtained from the City of Prince George and BC Housing through a Freedom of Information request from the Citizen show more chatter about the latter than the former.

The fact that the Citizen had to ask for the email trail just to find out who knew what and when and who set the direction and gave the order for the attempted demolition against an existing court order speaks volumes about the continuing lack of transparency at city hall.

If the City of Prince George’s only intentions were to have everyone safely housed while meeting the court order’s conditions, shouldn’t it have done so out in the open, with Together We Stand, the B.C. First Nations Justice Council and other advocates not only informed but even part of the process?

If they had, they likely would have spared themselves what looks like bad legal advice and what was surely a hefty legal bill to fight a losing case for actions they then had to apologize for. The actual legal advice is hidden from view under solicitor-client privilege, but the city could choose to waive that privilege and release it. The legal costs could also be released to the public if city council ordered administration to do so, instead of burying those expenses under billing for legal firms in the annual Statements of Financial Information.

Considering the political and legal risk to the city, the surprising lack of hands-on involvement from a city manager with a legal background, as well as mayor and council, is appalling. Perhaps they were more active behind the scenes, but the email trail indicates they largely left this work in the hands of other city employees and only jumped in once everything went sideways.

With how badly this all went down, perhaps new mayor Simon Yu and the new council might want to start their term in office by cleaning up their own house first.