The City of New Westminster will develop a citywide public toilet strategy to help address the needs of several target populations – including people who are unhoused and folks who may have underlying health conditions.
At its Sept. 23 meeting, council voted 5-2 in favour of directing staff to develop a citywide public toilet strategy. Mayor Patrick Johnstone and councillors Ruby Campbell, Tasha Henderson, Jaimie McEvoy, and Nadine Nakagawa voted in favour of the staff recommendation, while councillors Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas were opposed.
The issue of public toilets made headlines in June, when city staff brought forward a proposal to construct a permanent, prefabricated, freestanding toilet in front of a residential building on Begbie Street. In response to concerns about the toilet’s location, the hours (it would not be open 24/7) and other issues, council directed staff to develop a work plan and a budget for a citywide public toilet strategy.
At the June 24 meeting, council also directed staff to immediately enhance signage to better direct people to existing publicly funded toilets in the city.
According to a staff report, the proposed budget to complete the strategy and enhance signage is between $85,000 and $125,000, with these funds coming from the budget that was in place for the permanent freestanding toilet in the downtown.
The staff report said it is estimated that it will take eight to 12 months to complete this work. The social planning section of the planning and development department will be leading the work, but the city will also retain the program management and consultants’ services to help with the strategy.
Lisa Leblanc, the city’s director of engineering, said staff are working on adding additional signage in the downtown.
In terms of access to public washrooms, Leblanc said the city has identified three main user groups: the general public – including people who have access to their own washrooms and feel welcome in the existing public washrooms in the city; seniors and people living with disabilities – who may find that the existing public washrooms are not meeting their needs; and people who are unhoused – who may find access to public washrooms to be challenging.
“It's our understanding at this point that it's not for lack of awareness that some of those user group members are not accessing the existing facilities; there's other reasons for them not taking advantage of the services that are currently available,” she said. “The signage that exists today has not really altered that in terms of people's ability to access the available facilities.”
John Stark, the city’s manager of community planning, said the city is still incurring “significant costs” with regards to the cleanup of human waste in the community, despite signage directing people to public toilets.
“This was a realization, particularly with regards to the unhoused,” he said.
Stark said the city has heard that the number, availability, hours, and access to public toilets can be an issue for seniors, persons with disabilities, and people with underlying health conditions. He said that’s why the plan presented by council includes funding to bring on a gerontologist, who can engage that population and get a better sense of their needs.
“The social planning section does not have that specific expertise,” he said. “The other thing, with regards to both the project management and gerontologist, this was not part of our social planning work program; it is a new item. We're trying to minimize disruption on other work program items … and that includes the crisis response pilot project and the homelessness action strategy.”
Stark told council that the city is looking at having the strategy’s project management services provided by a company that previously worked on New Westminster’s downtown livability strategy and was “instrumental” in having the city secure $274,000 from BC Housing for portable toilet services for the unhoused and in securing the BC Housing funding for the full costs of a sanitation trailer in the downtown.
“We believe that BC Housing has a mandate to address the needs of the unhoused 24/7, so we'd be looking at working with the senior levels of government to ensure that those costs related to the unhoused are covered by the senior levels of government,” he said. “So that's why this is a more comprehensive strategy.”
Stark said the previously proposed prefabricated freestanding toilet on Begbie Street will not address all of the needs of the target populations.
“We need to look at this more comprehensively,” he said. “And again, looking at this as a human rights, dignity and public health issue.”
Strategy approved in 5-2 vote
Fontaine said he has some “serious” concerns that it could be up to a year before a strategy comes back to council. He said he would prefer to give the additional signage a chance to take effect before the city invests up to $125,000 and staff time on a citywide public toilet strategy.
“I think we should give the signage a chance to see if it will have its effect in the community before we go down this road,” he said.
As far as the three target populations being considered as part of this strategy, Fontaine said he views those who are unhoused and have no ability to access a toilet to be the priority, followed by seniors and then the general population.
Fontaine said he is supportive of having a strategy but feels the city should see if putting proper signage up throughout the entire downtown core has any impact before investing up to $125,000 on the strategy and embarking on a large work project.
Coun. Nadine Nakagawa said the conversation she’s hearing in the community is that there is a “huge need” for public washrooms.
“They're a huge priority. This is a piece of work that I think is long overdue, actually, and I'm really happy that we're taking it on now,” she said. “Signs aren't enough, because if you don't have the mobility, or – let's just be honest – the bladder or bowel control to get to those washrooms, that does not help knowing that it was a couple hundred metres away and you couldn't get there in time.”
Nakagawa said “public washrooms are not cheap infrastructure” so the city wants to make sure it gets it right and is as inclusive as possible.
“I know that this is not a topic that only New Westminster is considering. At the Union of BC Municipalities, last week, I was talking to a number of colleagues from across B.C. about public washrooms,” she said. “It seems like an idea whose time has come, and I couldn't be happier. … It's just one of those human needs that we don't like to talk about, but it's essential.”
Johnstone said he has done considerable reading in the last six months about public toilets as it is an issue that’s being addressed in many places. He said the staff recommendation follows what is considered to be the best practice.
Johnstone said it is important that the city have a conversation with the community on this issue to get a better understanding of their concerns, their anxieties about public toilets, and challenges they see for the city’s operations. While there are capital costs to construct public toilets, he said there are going to be operational costs as well.
“If there was not another unhoused person in this city as of tomorrow, we would still need public toilets in the city,” he said. “There would still be need for public toilets in the city to serve the families in the city, to serve seniors in the community, to serve people who have disabilities … and to serve the businesses.”
