Should the City of Vancouver hire more park rangers to try and address the growing number of hypodermic needles found in parks and playgrounds?
That’s the idea being pushed by a pair of NPA civic politicians, who say they want to see the service expanded so that rangers are on shift 24 hours a day.
In July alone, 902 used needles were collected in the Downtown Eastside, while 367 were picked up in nearby Andy Livingston Park.
In 2015, Vancouver Coastal Health released data indicating that an average of 355 needles per month were found in the park.
In a statement to Global News, the City of Vancouver said it “has received 1,445 reports of discarded needles across the entire city for the period of January to August of this year, a 68 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2016 when 860 reports were made.”
The statement went on to say the city has launched a number of “initiatives to reduce the number of discarded needles in public areas.”
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Parents in the Olympic Village area have been increasingly concerned about needles turning up in local playgrounds.
Speaking with CKNW’s Steele & Drex, NPA Parks Commissioner John Coupar said it’s a sign that something needs to change.
“It’s not just about picking up needles, it’s about making sure that children can safely play in a playground and not feel threatened, or people having a picnic and saying, ‘Gee, I don’t want to go over there, that looks a little rough to me,'” he said.
Coupar said funding for Vancouver parks has been shrinking, with the park board in line for about 4.9 per cent of the city’s budget, down from about seven per cent a decade ago.
He said that’s led to a shortage of staff monitoring the city’s parks.
“Right now we only have 22 full-time equivalent rangers for the whole year. But in actual fact, we’ve only got about six full-time. Most of these people are seasonal, so most of the time you’ve got maybe 10 or 12 rangers looking after 240 parks. It’s virtually impossible, they are going from crisis to crisis.”
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Coupar is putting a motion before the park board on Monday night asking staff to report back on how round-the-clock service can be achieved.
Meanwhile, NPA City Councillor George Affleck will take a related motion to council on Tuesday asking for an increase in parks funding for the initiative to be included in this year’s budget process.
LISTEN: VANDU spokesperson speaks to concerns over used needles in public parks
Flora Munroe, an administrator with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), said increasing the availability of needle disposal containers in the city’s parks is a good idea, but admits many drug users don’t use them because after getting high they’re not in a clear state of mind.
But she said more rangers may not necessarily be the right answer.
“Park rangers, people would look at them as another form of police, right? So it’s going to be like butting heads with them again, and they wouldn’t be listening.”
Munroe said the initiative could help if rangers took a non-confrontational approach with drug users, but said increasing information and education may be a more effective solution to the problem.
Back in June, the City of Vancouver increased patrols in Andy Livingston Park so that two rangers would be on site seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
And in January, the city closed a temporary warming shelter for the homeless at the Olympic Village’s Creekside Community Centre after a child found a used needle in the facility’s washroom.
People who find used needles can contact Vancouver Coastal Health’s needle-pickup hotline at 604-657-6561.