Kamloops social advocate calls for more clean, safe and accessible washrooms

More bathrooms required

Photo: Glenn Hilke

A public restroom on Victoria Street was closed when social advocate Glenn Hilke cycled by earlier this month. The City of Kamloops says the facility is frequently closed for repairs.

A local social advocate says he cycled through Kamloops neighbourhoods on a mission to assess the availability of public restrooms, concluding more facilities should be open for everyone.

Glenn Hilke said he spent hours last week biking between the east side of downtown Kamloops at the Yacht Club and McArthur Island Park to speak with park users and see how many washrooms were open during the day.

He said he believes these neighbourhoods lack facilities.

“It doesn't take a whole lot to know that we all have to go to the bathroom — sometimes, at times when it's not the most convenient,” Hilke said.

Hilke said he hopped on his bike, “motivated by feelings of anger and sadness” after reading a recent news story about a council committee discussing the need for more public washrooms. The matter has come up a number of times around the council table in years past.

Hilke, who was the co-ordinator for The Loop drop-in centre on the North Shore, said he doesn’t want the unhoused to be blamed for a lack of washrooms available for everyone to use, and he’d like to see the city do more to find solutions and keep safe, clean loos open across town.

There are dozens of public washrooms, from outhouses to facilities in buildings, scattered throughout city neighbourhoods from Aberdeen to Heffley Creek. But many outdoor washrooms are closed through the winter.

Hilke said public toilets at the Yacht Club and Pioneer Park, where plenty of seniors were out walking their dogs, were closed. Seasonal closures were also in effect for facilities in Prince Charles Park.

“That park is used every day no matter what the weather is like,” Hilke said.

He said an indoor public washroom located at 340 Victoria St. was also closed when he passed by.

An accessible washroom in Riverside Park was locked, Hilke found, and he was told by a man in a wheelchair that one must find a security guard to unlock it if you want to use that toilet.

Hilke noted there are no public washrooms located along the Tranquille commercial corridor.

'Doing our best'

Jeff Putnam, City of Kamloops parks and streets manager, said the reason for seasonal closures is simple — some of the city’s washroom facilities are located in older buildings that aren’t retrofitted to survive winter conditions.

“They’re not insulated, so we have to close them — otherwise the pipes will burst,” Putnam said.

He said the city is looking at ways to improve accessibility, especially through the winter months, noting purpose-built washrooms have been added in recent years in Riverside Park and Overlander Park.

“We only had a pit toilet there before. So we are doing our best with the resources we have, for sure,” he said.

Putnam said the public washroom facilities on Victoria Street and at Heritage House are frequently vandalized and misused. He noted the Victoria Street loo “has been closed for repairs more than it’s been open,” but repairs should be completed soon.

“It's a constant challenge to keep them open and safe for the public, and we're working hard,” he said.

Putnam said the city is gradually retrofitting washrooms with stainless steel fixtures, which provide a high level of vandalism resistance — but this is an expensive process.

In the meantime, he said there are more than a dozen washrooms available for the public across the city, and the City of Kamloops doesn’t tend to get many complaints about access.

“If we had to the resources, for sure it'd be nice to keep all our washrooms open year round,” Putnam said, noting this would double the amount of facilities available through the winter in places like McArthur Island park. “I think the community would be satisfied with that.”

Toilets provide dignity

When it comes to the unhoused, Lana Fine, a Kamloops drug policy reform and social justice advocate who works at a non-profit art studio on Tranquille Road, said washroom accessibility presents a major challenge.

“I think the focus has been on the harms caused by folks that are unhoused. But that is the complete wrong lens to take on this, in my opinion, in that we are failing to meet the basic needs of society by providing these necessary services,” Fine said.

Hilke said he spoke with people at businesses downtown and on the North Shore who had varying policies around washroom use for people who appear unhoused. Some of them will allow bathroom access, while others won’t.

He acknowledged offering public washrooms can be a challenge for “legitimate reasons” — but there are ways to combat these difficulties, from hiring people with lived experience to be washroom attendants, to offering things like more showers and laundry facilities so public bathrooms aren’t used for those reasons.

Fine said a lack of public washrooms only contributes to backlash and stigma against unhoused people.

“I think that it's really up to the council, the city, to look at the different ways in which other cities have addressed this,” she said.