KAMLOOPS MAYORAL ISSUE #4 — Street disorder and public safety

“As you know what I do for a living – as a locksmith – we deal with this on a daily basis and work with the RCMP. Their hands are tied if provincial and federal governments don’t step up the plate to hold these 100-to-200 people who are actually causing the problem (accountable). Most of the street people aren’t – it’s just this core group,” said Ray Dhaliwal. “There is organized crime in Kamloops, I’m aware of that, and we need to give the police all the tools we can. They are [working] in a building that was made for 70 people and there is a 140 complement of RCMP members and staff who we have there now. We are underserved there, but out of depot they aren’t getting enough new members coming out, so we are struggling like everybody else to get to our full complement. I believe this council has approved the full complement but to get those bodies here is a bit of a challenge.

“As far as the city, more [Community Service Officers], they are very effective. We need to have more boots on the ground. That is the biggest thing. I think I campaigned on that last time when I said, ‘Let’s bring in the army,’ but apparently council is not supposed to bring in the army.”

Ivory Winston said it is a provincial issue in terms of funding, but mayor and council still need to take the lead on the issue.

“As much as it’s a provincial issue when it comes to funding, I believe it’s a municipal issue because we are on the streets. [They’re] our streets, so I believe mayor and council need to take the lead,” said Winston. “As much as we may not be dictating the individual policies, individual organizations, we can take the lead and say we want zero homeless on our streets. We set the standard there and then we work with everybody possible, every organization to make that happen. To me we set the lead, set the tone, set the expectation and then we find out how to make it happen.

“I believe there are ideas and programs and resources in this community we already have that can make that difference. There are groups of people who want to express love for all these individuals who are so much in need in their lives, who are at the lowest points in their lives. It’s not an insurmountable problem. I believe we have 300, 400 homeless people in this community – totally achievable. We need to have people walk beside them for four-to-five years of their lives. That is a commitment, yes, and I believe it’s possible.

“We need recovery beds. We have a lot of these programs already in place. We need to find the ones that are working incredibly effectively and make more of those ones. If they aren’t working great, how do we transform them to ones that are? I believe this is achievable and I believe it is possible in the next four years to have zero homeless on our streets in Kamloops.”

Nelly Dever wants to see the city play a vital role in making Kamloops streets safer, while pushing the government on involuntary care.

“I want to see the city play a vital role, it is a vital role,” said Dever. “We’ve lost four years. we need to join some of the other mayoral task forces that have been set up across the province. We need to join them, as well, advocating for an involuntary care facility in Kamloops. If the other communities receive their involuntary care facilities and we don’t, we know what that means – those who don’t want involuntary care are going to gravitate toward Kamloops, and then we are going to have a larger issues, another issue. We play a vital role in that from RCMP to CSOs, clinicians, stakeholder engagement, advocating. [Mayor and council] are right at the top and we need to take responsibility and accountability there.”

Mike O’Reilly is proposing a new vision for how the city manages the homeless population, wanting to see one shelter closed, and a new one opened along Mission Flats Road.

“When we look at homeless and street disorder specifically, a lot can be said, ‘Well, it’s a provincial issue,’ and to a certain extent that is correct,” offered O’Reilly. “What I’m proposing is we can manage the homeless population in a different way. That is in our purview as a municipal government. I have proposed that, should I be elected the mayor of Kamloops, we will ask the province to close the emergency shelter at the old Greyhound bus [station] and relocate it to the old public works yard that the city owns on Mission Flats. I don’t believe emergency shelters, specifically the Greyhound location, the Pathways shelter on Tranquille and somewhat Stuart Wood location, can co-exist in our core business district and residential neighbourhoods. And that is solely due to the fact that there is no support from provincial services, so we need to have a buffer between our residents, businesses and the homeless population. And it also provides more dignity for the homeless population. I would certainly like to see that moving forward.

“And lastly, should I be elected mayor of Kamloops, one of the first things I will do is strike a mayor’s task force on where emergency shelters can go. As it stands right now, people drive around looking for ‘for lease’ signs in windows and that is how they decide where an emergency shelter should go. We have parameters and rules in place for where a cannabis or liquor store can be located – whether that is within 100 metres of a school or a park or a playground – we have no such thing for an emergency shelter. The task force would be made up of business owners, business associations, neighbourhood associations and residents, to tell us if an emergency shelter has to open in Kamloops, where can it go and, more specifically, where can’t it go.”

Incumbent Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson refused to be interviewed for our issue stories this week. Kris Lloyd-Middleton was under the weather and unable to participate.

by Michael Reeve

KAMLOOPS MAYORAL ISSUE #4 — Street disorder and public safety

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