Prince George Officials Say No Evidence Supports Claims of Vancouver Relocating Unhoused People

Prince George city officials and multiple councillors have publicly stated they have no evidence that Vancouver is transporting unhoused people to their community ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The city's director of administrative services, Eric Depenau, said the claim of coordinated busloads arriving lacks supporting evidence.

He noted that people move between communities for various reasons, including access to services and the regional hospital, and that Canadian citizens have constitutional mobility rights.

Sociology instructor Marc Sinclair at the College of New Caledonia said comparable stories have appeared across Canada for decades. He cited past examples including one-way tickets given to two men from Saskatchewan in 2016, Toronto's 1999 "Project Going Home," and travel funding provided by former Alberta premier Ralph Klein.

Sinclair said none of those programs match the current claim of people being dropped off by bus at night, and he has seen nothing in Prince George indicating such activity is occurring.

The City of Prince George released a statement noting that Vancouver has said on its public webpage it has no plans to displace or relocate unhoused people for World Cup requirements. Vancouver's Host Committee has issued a human rights plan addressing security measures and unhoused residents, with an update expected Monday.

Prince George faces its own housing pressures. The city operates a regional correctional centre, has received wildfire evacuees who sometimes remain, and recorded in its 2024 point-in-time count that nearly half of unhoused individuals have lived there for more than ten years.

Of those who arrived from elsewhere, 11 per cent came from the Lower Mainland or Vancouver Island, while 75 per cent identified as Indigenous. Sinclair said these local factors have contributed to an increasingly hostile attitude toward unhoused people and a stronger "us versus them" mentality in the community.