Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

“Some members of the street-entrenched population” are causing problems. Some of the problem people are homeless, some are addicts, some are mentally ill ... but no one category defines the problem at hand

Along the beach -- night time in Penticton

Every community suffers from these things.  Problems resulting from homelessness ... overuse, excessive use, and addiction to drugs and ... spray-painted scrawling doodles, that most do not find artistic, and which have to be cleaned up ... panhandlers and street-people.

Last Summer, the City of Penticton decided it was time to take action because, as Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Peter Weeber stated:

A very small amount of people are causing a tremendous amount of problems in our community.”

In a July 2018 media release, the city pulled no punches making it clear that enough was enough:

Penticton is a beautiful and safe community. Penticton is our home. If you are here to enjoy all Penticton has to offer, “Welcome.” If you are here to break the law, drink and use drugs in a public place, occupy and damage city and private property, your life is about to get complicated.”

The City of Penticton is taking a zero-tolerance approach to all unacceptable behaviors and illegal activities.

The communication went on to say, “It is time to take our community back from a small group of people that cause a high percentage of the problems. We encourage residents and visitors to report any activity that threatens the safety and beauty of our home”.

Over the weekend I asked Mr. Weeber about managing, solving, and finding a balance to problems that were occurring in Penticton, and he said to me ... “The issues we are experiencing can only be managed not solved.  Successful management of the issues require collaboration and balance.”


Meantime an hour and a half north, in the City of Vernon, a February 13th editorial in the Morning Star stated: “The impact of the street-entrenched population on downtown business can’t be tackled without also tackling or at least mitigating the overarching issue of homelessness."

City Councillor Scott Anderson disagreed strongly however, stating,Yes, it can.

The issue is not homelessness. Not all homeless people are causing problems. Nor is it drug use...not all drug users are causing problems. Nor is it mental illness...not all mentally ill people are causing problems.”


With that, Anderson circled back to how Penticton in particular is dealing with the issue:

"Solving" homelessness will not solve the problem, nor is it impossible to alleviate the problem without solving homelessness. What we need to do is make it apparent to the trouble-makers than Vernon is no longer a free for all, and we can do that the same way Penticton did - through enforcement and a zero-tolerance attitude.”

That took me back to Chief Administrative Officer Peter Weeber in Penticton, and the obvious question of whether they were still facing issues, and how they were being dealt with. 

We will maintain a hard stance on managing inappropriate behaviours in the community”, he commented to me.  And then quickly followed up stating ... “There must to be a balance in our approach and there are no quick solutions to the challenges we are experiencing in Penticton”.

And like Penticton, there are no quick solutions in Vernon either. 

Again, quoting Councillor Anderson, “We may not be able to solve the problem completely, but we can make it very very difficult for people to remain troublemakers in Vernon”.

Striking the right balance between implementing possible solutions quickly, and what can and should be done over time, isn’t an easy task.  Nor does figuring out the partnerships, and pieces of the puzzle, that will come together to help create solutions to complicated problems.  According to CAO Peter Weeber:

“BC Housing, Interior Health and the non-profits are one dimension supported by the city in a variety of ways. (Meantime) The City deals with inappropriate behaviour through bylaw enforcement and our contractor the RCMP.”

As it stated at the beginning of this piece:

Every community suffers from these things.  Problems resulting from homelessness ... overuse, excessive use, and addiction to drugs and ... spray-painted scrawling doodles, that most do not find artistic, and which have to be cleaned up ... panhandlers and street-people.”

Remember though, it’s not just in Vernon and Penticton.  It’s Kamloops ... it’s cities in metro Vancouver ... Victoria ... Vancouver Island ... and the North.

There is no one single ‘one size fits all’ solution, but there are ideas which can be brought forward, and discussed, in every community across the province.  They can be implemented and tweaked, and then perhaps shared with other regional communities, and perhaps through the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM).

Again, there won’t be a one size fits all solution, but ideas will grow and multiply if we only take the time to look for them.

In Kamloops, I’m Alan Forseth, and now I am very much interested in hearing what your thoughts are on this topic.  Please take a moment to write them down in the Comments Section directly below this blog post.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

GORDON F. D. WILSON: When The Trick Masquerades as The Treat

Thirty-seven years ago, Halloween 1987, I became the leader of the BC Liberal Party.   British Columbia was badly polarized. Social Credit held one side and the NDP the other. It had been twelve years, 1975, since Liberal MLAs Garde Gardom, Pat McGeer, and Alan Williams had walked away from their party to join Social Credit, one year after the lone Progressive Conservative MLA Hugh Curtis had abandoned his party to sit with Bill Bennett, the son and heir apparent to long-serving BC Premier, WAC Bennett.   An unwritten agreement by the biggest Canadian political shareholders, the federal Liberals and Conservatives, decided that if British Columbia was to remain a lucrative franchise from a revenue perspective, they couldn’t risk splitting the electoral vote and electing the real enemy, the NDP, so no resources would be used to finance either a Liberal or Conservative party provincially.   “There are two sides to every street,” I was told by a very prominent Canadian businessman who cont

FORSETH: You Have To Be A Bit Crazy

  Ward and his wife Carleen celebrating his win on election night.   In March of this year, I took on the role of Campaign Manager for BC Conservative candidate Ward Stamer.  It’s the third time I’ve had the opportunity as I took on the role for Peter Sharp in 2013, and for Dennis Giesbrecht in 2020. Now let me tell you, in the past, a BC Conservative campaign team generally consisted of myself, the candidate and one or two helpers – and very little in the way of a campaign budget. Thankfully, a benefit of having spent 30+ years in the broadcast media afforded me the ability to do ad copy and write candidate speeches, and prep both Dennis and Peter to deal with the media – it’s also something I have always enjoyed. That was part of my duties this time around as well, however having a team of a dozen and a half volunteers meant that for the first time we had people available to ID our supporters, put together and install campaign signs, distribute campaign literature, and help out at ou

FORSETH: As a BC Conservative member, and campaign worker, I will again state that the fact these errors were found -- AND brought to light BY Elections BC -- shows the system IS working

Sadly, two and a half weeks after the BC provincial election campaign, those who want to undermine our political process are still at.  PLUS, we also have one who doesn’t even live in our country, never mind our province. I speak of the buffoon running for President of the United States, who has poisoned the well when it comes to faith in the electoral process. Just today alone, comments such as the following, were being made of posts that I shared online: ... all the votes they keep finding has just favoured NDP on in all critical ridings and soon they will flip another riding in favour of NDP, Come on. ... Elections BC has ridiculed British Columbians, and I no longer have confidence or trust in their process and competence regarding the results Then there are others online, with comments like these – who are claiming fraud in the October 19th election: ... Who is the oversight for Elections BC? They should be investigated for election fraud! ... Fraudulent election ... should be red

Labels

Show more