Though it still has planned public consultation to complete, the Yukon government is definitively moving forward with a youth group home in Porter Creek.

In a March 13 email obtained by the Star, Simone Fournel, the territory’s assistant director of family and children’s services, advised Health and Social Services staff that city council had unanimously approved the department’s conditional use application to create a group home at 22 Wann Rd. the night before.

“This means we will be proceeding with the final stages of financial approval that will allow for the sale of the property,” she wrote.

“This is great news and will now allow us to begin further work on transitional services programming and planning for the renovations to the property that will be needed.

“At this time, Public Works has advised they anticipate we would be ready for occupancy at Wann Road around the end of the calendar year.”

The property had been listed at $1.1 million.

Last Friday, Fournel wrote to the Porter Creek Community Association, inviting the membership to an open house this evening about the “proposed group home.”

Jeffrey Marynowski, the association’s president, said in an interview this morning that “proposed” doesn’t suit a project that appears to be moving full- steam-ahead. “They were already set,” he said.

Department spokesperson Pat Living confirmed Monday that the decision has been taken to proceed with the group home, and the use of the word “proposed” to describe the project is at this point a matter of “semantics.”

Community opinions were aired through the city process, which saw written submissions and presentations to council. Living said it would take something very significant to derail the project at this point.

In a letter to the Star published Feb. 14, Brenda Lee Doyle, the assistant deputy minister of social services, laid out the government’s plan for a “two-part process” for public consultation on the project.

The first half was the city planning process, which saw a Feb. 26 public input session before city council on the conditional use application for the 22 Wann Rd. property.

Government officials and politicians observed the public presentations.

A city staff report to council was presented the following week, recommending the application’s approval, which all seven council members subsequently did.

“If this group home is approved through the city planning process, a formal communication with neighbours will then take place,” Doyle explained in her February letter.

“This exchange will fully explain the purpose of the building, and provide the opportunity for neighbours to have their questions and concerns addressed by the staff who will lead the programming,” she wrote.

And that’s what the government plans to do at this evening’s open house, Living explained, rather than determine whether or not the project will go forward.

She said the hope is to allay any remaining concerns that community members might have.

Marynowski said he plans to attend the open house.

“At the very least, maybe we can set a standard for consultation,” he said.

“Hopefully moving forward, they will consult and they will do things better, because it’s process that was the worst thing here.”

Living also noted that this group home has sparked a larger conversation about the government’s approach to consultation when it looks to introduce a project into a neighbourhood.