Gatineau postpones decision on proposed police HQ near homeless shelter

The City of Gatineau is postponing a meeting to choose the location of the future Gatineau police headquarters until January.

A committee was originally scheduled to meet Tuesday to analyze the choice of building the headquarters on the property of the Robert-Guertin Centre, which is near a homeless shelter, supervised injection site and soup kitchen.

The proposal would see the headquarters in the parking lot of the centre, which will eventually be torn down. It would house officers from Hull after their post is expropriated and Gatineau sector officers whose building is considered obsolete by the force.

A news release Monday says the city now wants to take more time to explore more options. 

Some citizens and organizations voiced their dissatisfaction last week, saying a heightened police presence in an area frequented by people who use these services increases their risk of being fined and overly monitored and could further displace them. 

"Members of the city council received the presentation [from the city administration] on Friday afternoon ... I had a lot of exchanges with the members of the executive committee ... and in our opinion, there were still blind spots and information that was missing," said Gatineau Mayor France Bélisle in a French interview with Radio-Canada.

"The sense of urgency is still there and it is not a decision that can be put off forever," she said.

"The executive committee has mandated the internal team to broaden its analysis criteria by now also including other municipal sites."

'The file got off to a bad start'

The date of the next meeting should be announced shortly, but it will take place in January 2023. No public consultation meetings have been set so far.

"Even though I'm a little surprised by the postponement at the last minute and I would have liked this decision to be explained publicly, I think it's a good idea, because obviously the file got off to a bad start," said Touraine Coun. Tiffany-Lee Norris-Parent.

"People were very upset. And so they mobilize and said, 'This is unacceptable. We want to be part of the conversation,'" said Hull-Wright Coun. Steve Moran, who represents the Robert-Guertin Centre area.

"Pretty clearly, they've ceded to the pressure coming from residents, from social movements, from service groups and from the business community say[ing] that we need to look a little closer at this decision before we make it."