FORT ST. JOHN -- The city of Fort St. John is taking steps to remove tents set up on private property across the city.

Residents have been voicing concerns following fires and acts of vandalism at encampment sites.

A push from the city will now look to get people off the street and into shelters.

“It’s never about displacing people, it’s never about trying to chase them all around town, but there’s certain areas that don’t work at all for this,” said City Councillor Trevor Bolin in an interview with CJDC-TV.

Tents set up behind the Old Fort Hotel on 100th Avenue were dismantled Tuesday.

RCMP and bylaw officers notifying people living there that they could not stay on the premises after a notice to vacate went ignored. The tents were later removed without incident.

The move is part of an ongoing push to address homelessness in the city.

There have been concerns over safety, with Bolin detailing an event where a truck sped into another lot along 100th Street where tents were set up, did donuts, and sprayed rocks at an encampment. The occurance resulted in no injuries. 

“Let's figure out the problem and figure out the solution,” said Bolin, who is looking to understand whether it is an issue of housing, addiction, mental health or a combination of the three.

The councillor will be part of a committee looking to be formed alongside Sarah MacDougall and Gord Klassen that will look to better understand why the city is having a problem with homelessness, the shelter system, and affordability.

“Bylaw going in and just dismantling or moving them out or the RCMP helping like we’ve seen on Tuesday doesn’t fix anything, it doesn’t tell us what’s wrong,” said Bolin.

They will provide recommendations and propose a bylaw that will get people off the street and into housing inline with Bill 45.

The provincial bill allows local government to enforce bylaws when reasonable shelter is available.

Bolin says the goal is to work with local groups including the Salvation Army Shelter of Hope and Women’s Resource Centre to get people into adequate housing available in the city.

“I want to see this fixed in Fort St. John forever, and I’m not saying that a bylaw and a committee is going to do that in one day, but I think over the course of time as they become more effective I think that’s what we’re going to find,” said Bolin.

Addressing pushback from the Human Rights Commissioner over the proposal of an encampment bylaw in 2023, Bolin says he is expecting some negative feedback from advocacy groups, but that the issue is less about tents and rather addressing the needs of the people living in them. 

“I think that the Fort St. John approach is the only approach that's going to work,” said Bolin.