B.C. mayors demand five concrete steps from province on public safety

Mayors from across B.C. presented a formal request Thursday at the Union of B.C. Municipalities annual conference in Vancouver, demanding the province take five specific steps to address public safety and addiction.

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto, Prince George Mayor Simon Yu, and Squamish Councillor Jenna Stoner — joined by Save Our Streets coalition co-founders Jess Ketchum and Clint Mahlman — signed a billboard reading "contract with our communities" at a news conference outside the Vancouver Convention Centre.

The five requested actions: (1) enact a provincial policy preventing homeless encampments where adequate shelter options exist; (2) move beyond harm reduction and make detoxification beds available in Health Ministry facilities across all B.C. communities; (3) properly locate public-facing low-barrier harm reduction services so drug use doesn't transfer harm to neighbourhood residents; (4) immediately establish government-operated addiction and mental illness treatment and recovery services on a regional basis throughout B.C.; and (5) fully fund the provincial justice system to ensure accountability, with adequate judges, sheriffs, Crown prosecutors and correctional staff.

West framed the issue as beyond partisan lines: "The issues of public safety that are impacting communities across British Columbia—these are not Conservative issues or concerns, these are not NDP issues or concerns. These are concerns of every normal, rationally thinking person in this province."

The Save Our Streets coalition released a poll September 14 showing 48 per cent of respondents "fear for the safety of their families" in their community. Ketchum noted that mayors and councillors returned to UBCM to continue pushing the same demands. "Last year, councillors and mayors joined us in Victoria at UBCM to talk about more action on these issues. Unfortunately, we find it necessary to come back again this year as more work needs to be done."

Alto said local governments have spent millions filling service gaps the province has left open. "Frankly, it is unsustainable for local governments to have to step in to this degree in all of those complex areas. The City of Victoria is no different than all the rest in that we've spent millions of dollars in the last year or two creating plans and executing them to fill in these gaps."

Stoner, the incoming UBCM president, brought the resolution forward. Other convention resolutions included calls from Cranbrook for youth detox and treatment beds in the southeast, Revelstoke for expanded brain injury supports, and Trail for better overdose emergency care in rural areas.