Photo: KTW file photo.

Kamloops Coun. Nancy Bepple.

A Kamloops councillor says she’s noticed that public washrooms are few and far between — and wants to see the B.C. government find solutions to increase the availability of toilets for all.

“I know a lot about toilets. I would say I'm a toilet queen,” Coun. Nancy Bepple said during Tuesday’s council meeting.

“I've had some of my colleagues say that they can leave their house at the beginning of the day and not have to worry about where there might be a toilet. That's not their issue — but it is my issue.

“That's one of the things that I have to live with. And it's been more and more challenging, I know, for people with little children.”

Bepple brought forward a motion during a council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 4, which seeks the support of the Southern Interior Local Government Association and the Union of B.C. Municipalities in bringing forward the matter to the province.

In her motion, Bepple noted the B.C. Public Health Act addresses public sanitary facilities and toilets, regulations which are in place to make sure public places contain adequate bathrooms.

However, the motion said more and more public toilets are being shut indefinitely or permanently for several reasons, including vandalism, drug use and maintenance costs.

Bepple told council she has a friend who is older and can’t go shopping because there aren’t public toilets available. She added that she recently went on a road trip and stopped in at a gas station where the toilet was permanently closed — and no other facilities were available in that small town.

“This is not an issue that we need to deal with. This is a provincial legislation that they have put in place,” she said, adding she wants the province to take ownership of the issue.

“The legislation was put in place for public health, and it should be the responsibility of the provincial government to do consultation to just see how can we make things better — because it has gotten much worse in the last few years.”

Potential business impact?

Coun. Kelly Hall said he hasn’t had trouble finding bathrooms in remote communities, adding he was concerned that local businesses might end up having to shoulder a bigger financial burden as a result of such a study.

“I would just hate to see added costs onto various businesses because of a recommendation that comes from a provincial government that seems to want to continue to download everything to the municipality,” Hall said.

“Who knows, maybe that will become our cost.”

Coun. Dale Bass said she doesn’t see anything wrong with asking the province to look into an issue.

“I don’t see anything here that says it will happen, that we’re going to have to pay for it,” Bass said.

Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson said the root cause of a lot of this came down to mental health and addiction issues, and he didn’t want to see people being forced to open up bathrooms when they have spent thousands of dollars on damages due to vandalism.

Coun. Katie Neustaeter argued it’s “so much the better” if the province looks into the matter and concludes more action needs to be taken to address drug use.

Coun. Bill Sarai said as a SILGA representative, he knows this discussion has come up — and he thinks it would be worthwhile to see if other communities would support the matter

While Coun. Mike O’Reilly and Hamer-Jackson were opposed, the motion was carried 7-2.

SILGA representatives will be considering motions brought forward from all member municipalities at its convention coming up in April.