“We can’t legislate people not to go to the washroom,” said Councilor McConnachie

To flush or not to flush that’s the question as council explore the options to help alleviate peoples bladders in downtown Prince George.

At Monday nights council meeting, councilors decided to explore the option of giving additional funding to the social services, like the shelters downtown to address the need for more public washrooms.

Councilor Terry McConnachie said although not a perfect solution, the current plan is better than doing nothing.

“We can’t legislate people not to go to the bathroom. People need areas for personal care; females, homeless people are dealing with issues that have to be dealt with.”

At a previous council meeting, councilors expressed hesitation in taking on the maintenance of a full public washroom downtown. City staff points out examples of other cities where public washrooms have done little to solve the issue of public urination.

At the meeting, the city looked at four possible solutions with enhancing washroom services to a selection of downtown place being the most economical at $36,000.

Councilor Brian Skakun said they will check with the different organizations and go from there.

“We could have spent $80,000 and have city staff monitor some washrooms.”