On the night of Feb. 14, Courtenay鈥檚 city council determined that , which was set to ban sheltering in most parks, needed to be reviewed before the third reading.

This decision came after the legislation faced opposition from various local advocates and homeless community members during the previous meeting on Jan. 25.

RELATED: Delegation spoke against Courtenay bylaw set to ban sheltering in parks

In a submitted before the Feb. 14 council, community advocate Dayna Forsgren pointed out perceived language issues in the bylaw and suggested a list of recommendations and amendments to mitigate potential adverse effects on the homeless population.

Kate O鈥機onnell, Courtenay鈥檚 director of corporate services, provided a concise overview of nine amendments, primarily focusing on refining language and providing clarity.

Councillor Doug Hillian by stating the legislation required further attention before its adoption.

鈥淚 think there鈥檚 been a tremendous amount of work done by (city) staff, but clearly we鈥檝e had a significant response from the community and we want to make sure that what we do is measured and appropriate,鈥� said Hillian. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to be perceived as acting against the human rights of vulnerable individuals in the community.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that the bylaw necessarily does that as it stands, but if there are ways that we can make it more effective to signal that to the community, I鈥檇 support that as well.鈥�

Coun. Evan Jolicoeur - who opposed the bylaw during its first and second readings - emphasized the necessity of incorporating insight from community service providers and First Nations鈥� voices in the drafting of such legislation.

Shortly after, Coun. Wendy Morin expressed her support for the recommendations put forward by local advocates, yet reminded that the municipality鈥檚 power is limited when addressing matters falling under provincial jurisdiction.

鈥淲e鈥檙e a municipality and many of the recommendations in this list鈥� are going to our capacity as a municipality to deal with these huge systemic issues that we just don鈥檛 have the means to do,鈥� said Morin. 鈥淚鈥檓 in favour of taking a look at some of these (recommendations) for sure, and鈥� in principle, I agree with all of these, but it鈥檚 (about) what can we do to make it work with what we鈥檙e dealing with.鈥�

Adding to Morin鈥檚 point, Coun. David Frisch offered more nuanced support, stating that amending this bylaw won鈥檛 single-handedly solve the homeless issue.

鈥淭his bylaw isn鈥檛 designed to solve the major issue we have; it鈥檚 to cope with the smaller issues that are falling out of it,鈥� said Frisch. 鈥淚f we change some wording in this bylaw, I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 necessarily gonna improve people鈥檚 situation.

鈥淚 find it hard to believe that if we start allowing camp-like situations in parks, we鈥檙e helping the problem and in fact, maybe creating other problems. I鈥檓 actually in favour of going ahead with this bylaw as it鈥檚 written and doubling down on our work to get proper solutions around mental health, drug addiction services and housing.鈥�

However, in an interesting turn of events, Frisch proposed a motion to support the review of the bylaw by city staff following the aforementioned amendments highlighted by O鈥機onnell, which the council unanimously voted in favour of.

The third reading of Bylaw 3121 is scheduled for the March 13 city council meeting.

RELATED: New bylaw would ban sheltering in many places in Courtenay

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