Just a week ago, Williams Lake city council was considering declaring a state of local emergency over the public safety, homelessness, and crime issues in the community.
This emergency measure has been shelved for now, as the B.C. NDP government finally seems to have realized that Williams Lake needs support from the province. Small cities like Williams Lake are really not in the financial position to complete the work needed with respect to housing, mental health and addictions treatment, and the level of policing required.
According to an email sent from Public Safety Minister Garry Begg to Williams Lake Mayor Surinderpal Rathor, the RCMP has committed to deploying the Cariboo-Chilcotin Crime Reduction Unit to Williams Lake to assess the situation and develop an action plan.
In addition, through this year’s Civil Forfeiture Grant program, three Williams Lake-based non-profits (Big Brothers Big Sisters of Williams Lake, the Cariboo-Chilcotin Partners for Literacy Society, and the Canadian Mental Health Association Cariboo Chilcotin) will receive $90,000 between them. The idea behind these grants is to fund initiatives that aim to prevent crime and enhance public safety.
Cariboo-Chilcotin needs all the support offered, but $90,000 is less than a drop in the bucket.
I feel the same way about the $5 million that the province announced they will allocate towards new policing technology and increased patrols to address crime in B.C.’s downtown centres.
Five million dollars only amounts to about one dollar per head in British Columbia. In Williams Lake alone, we are facing assaults in public parks, violent break-ins at local businesses, public indecency, property damage and fires, and open drug use. How far can $5 million really go when downtown Victoria, Nanaimo, Prince George, Williams Lake, and more are all in a disordered state?
The problems we see in these cities originate with untreated mental illness, brain injury, and addiction. If we truly want long-term success, the mental health and addictions crisis must be addressed.
Look, Williams Lake won’t turn away any offer for increased RCMP presence or for more crime prevention funding, but what I’m ultimately asking for is a crackdown on catch-and-release bail.
Prolific crime can’t be ignored, and there must be change with respect to incarcerating prolific offenders.
We need a commitment from the NDP government to either keep these repeat offenders incarcerated, or treat them, or both.
