An organization representing downtown Vancouver businesses has launched a campaign to highlight public safety issues ahead of B.C.’s provincial election.
The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, now known as Downtown Van, says the Better Safe / Than Sorry campaign is meant to highlight “what’s at stake if political parties don’t prioritize community safety in their platforms.”
The group is urging the public to press candidates on how they’ll make downtown Vancouver safer.
“Over the past few years our members have been wrestling with significant challenges related to community safety and it is taking a toll,” said Downtown Van president and CEO Jane Talbot.
“Dealing with the realities of theft, damage, employee wellbeing and customers feeling unsafe is preventing businesses in Vancouver’s downtown core from thriving.”
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Talbot said this is the first time Downtown Van has launched a campaign directed at the provincial government in this way, but that it was responding to concerns from members.
They’re concerns like those shared by Granville Tobacconist owner Ahmed Nawaz, who told Global News concerns about safety are keeping shoppers away.
“If people feel safe they will come here,” he said. “If they are not safe, they won’t come (to) this area.”
The association wants parties to commit to increased mental health and addiction funding, increased police funding and a “multidisciplinary strategy” to target repeat offenders.
Candidates for both of B.C.’s major parties in the area say they’re keeping public safety top of mind.
Terry Yung, a longtime Vancouver police officer running for the NDP in Vancouver-Yaletown, said the problems downtown need a multi-pronged response.
That would include more resources for hard-to-house people and mental health and addictions.
It would also include expanding existing programs that are working, like the Car 87 mental health crisis response and the Assertive Community Treatment that works to “treat people in the community before they further deteriorate.”
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He said the other half of the equation involves a renewed focus on keeping chronic offenders behind bars and using technology to better track people who breach release conditions.
Former city councillor Melissa De Genova, who is running for the BC Conservatives in Vancouver-Yaletown, said if elected her party would reverse NDP programs like the province’s “radical” drug policy and the purchase of hotels to house the homeless.
“Our plan involves involuntary treatment,” she said.
“It also includes turning some of our safe supply sites into places where people can access detox on demand and move into recovery. And then we need truly supportive housing that isn’t all centred in Yaletown and downtown Vancouver.”
Downtown Van has launched a series of ads featuring side-by-side images comparing thriving streetscapes with empty storefronts.
It has also launched a website that will include comparisons of party platforms.
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