Abbotsford's mayor says he is deeply embarrassed after the city dumped chicken manure on a downtown homeless camp.
"We are deeply apologetic for any hurt this may have caused," Bruce Banman told reporters this morning.
The city manager took responsibility for it, but it's unclear who actually ordered it, so Banman has ordered a review.
But details are sketchy. He was asked how the process would work, and how long it would take.
“I would love to be able to tell you I have a magic wand and that I can give you all of that detail, but the reality is that will be a review that the city manager George Murray does. I would imagine it is going to, you know, take place as quickly as we possibly can.”
Banman says it’s possibly someone could get fired after the review, but he prefers lessons to be learned from mistakes.
He also hopes he can get some help to create a strategy to deal with homelessness.
"It is a very complex problem. Like many things, I don't think one size fits all, is going to fix anything and we need to work together with our partners. The province and the cities need to work together along with the federal government. We need to work together to help solve this problem."
Homelessness activist James Breckenridge is taking the city to task, saying he doesn't accept the apology, and that words are "cheap."
"We have been through this before, with other mayors, and other incidents in this city. And the city "makes nice" because the press is looking at them, but this is a new low, so they are getting a little extra press attention."
He says we need to check back in six months, once the media attention has died down, to see if conditions for the homeless have actually improved. He doubts they will.