It appears as if Corrections Canada have made their decision regarding the location of a new halfway house in Vernon. However, city council doesn‘t want to hear it. The Corrections Canada announcement, which would have been made at today‘s council meeting, would likely be delayed after a request from mayor Wayne Lippert to defer the presentation and instead “further discuss the proposal and address our concerns.” “(Corrections Canada) were told that we had conditions of what we wanted to see before we would consider the matter,” said Coun. Barry Beardsell, “They still haven‘t stepped up to the plate with those.” Council is in agreement that before the Corrections Canada proposal is heard, the Eric Fish trial must be concluded and a report on the operations of the previous halfway house be seen by council.
Fish was charged with first degree murder in the beating death of Bill Abramenko in 2004. At the time of the murder, Fish had been missing from the Howard House for six weeks. RCMP did not issue an alert when Fish disappeared although the National Parole Board had noted that he was a high risk to violently re-offend. The halfway house was later closed at the city‘s request. “Bill Abramenko was a very decent man. The very least we need to do is get answers as to what occurred, and that has never been forthcoming,” said Coun. Patrick Nicol. “This is not to point fingers but to find out what went wrong. It‘s a very reasonable request. It‘s difficult to think that we have to beg to have that request adhered to,” Nicol said.
Although council is not in favour of moving ahead with the halfway house at this time, there may not be much it can do to stop Corrections Canada. “The moratorium (against the halfway house) ends in October. I‘m not sure that after the two years we have the right to stop them,” said Coun. Juliette Cunningham. Cunningham said that if Corrections Canada goes ahead without the support of council, the city may try to block the project using zoning bylaws. “That‘s where we have control; if its in an area that needs to be rezoned to accommodate it, then it will have to go to public hearing.”
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