Editor:
I’m writing in response to Councillor Scott Nelson’s recent proposal to impose a city-wide curfew in Williams Lake, which was voted down by council. While it’s clear that our community is facing complex challenges—including addiction, homelessness and public safety—the notion that a curfew will address these issues is both shortsighted and harmful.
What concerns me is not just the proposal itself, but the narrative underneath it: that the presence of vulnerable people in public spaces is a threat best handled by force or removal. We’ve seen this kind of rhetoric elsewhere in Canada, often used to justify policies that criminalize poverty rather than address its root causes.
Scott Nelson is a wealthy man with considerable property holdings in this city, including numerous rental units. With this comes a responsibility to be part of the solution—not by pushing people further into the margins, but by championing meaningful, long-term strategies: affordable housing, trauma-informed supports, mental health care, and community-based outreach. These are the approaches that actually work. Declaring a state of emergency to remove the visible symptoms of poverty does not heal the problem; it hides it.
You cannot expect people to heal when they have no place to live. If most of us were out living on the streets with no support, no income, and no safety net, we too would be vulnerable to numbing the hopelessness and day-to-day fear with substances. It is not a moral failing—it is a survival response. When your daily life is marked by fear, anger, and hopelessness, how do you begin to heal? To do more than survive, we need a safe place to rest, food to eat, and support systems rooted in compassion.
We need to deal with this issue with compassion, humanity, and critical thinking to come up with viable solutions. Putting someone in treatment because they are addicted and on the streets—against their will—is not a solution.
What happens when they get out? Where do they go? How do they pay rent? They will have nothing and will be back in the same place. We need to address the underlying issues, not just the behaviour.
We need leaders who understand the difference between safety and suppression. Williams Lake deserves a future built on care, not control.
Jayne Williams-Aleck
Big Lake Ranch, BC
