Prince George Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Corrigall is calling on Mayor Lyn Hall and the city to launch a leadership table to help mitigate social issues such as drug addiction and homelessness.
They are requesting, on behalf of our entire community, that the group include invitations to the leaders of the following sectors and/organizations:
- Lheidli T’enneh First Nation
- Federal Elected Officials
- Provincial Elected Officials
- Prince George Mayor and Council
- Regional District of Fraser Fort George
- Prince George RCMP
- North District RCMP
- Prince George Fire Services
- Northern Health
- PG Chamber of Commerce
- Downtown Prince George
Three years ago, the Mayors Select Committee on a Safe, Clean, and Inclusive Community group was formed to help alleviate these issues in our downtown.
However, according to the local chamber, that committee has been underutilized citing there have been no meaningful discussions in months.
Corrigall told MyPGNow.com that while the illicit drug crisis has gotten worse since that time, the desire to eliminate these problems has increased.
“But, what we have also seen through those three and four years is a higher level of desire from partners to be at the table and involved. If I look at the support we get from our MP’s and our MLA’s and a number of support group organizations in town, it has been tremendous.”
“It’s time for the city to lead. We can’t sit back anymore, we can’t talk about jurisdiction – the city needs to lead this issue and we are calling on the mayor to create a leadership table consisting of some very specific organizations.”
Last June, the City of Terrace declared its downtown in crisis after discussions regarding homelessness, mental health, and addictions.
According to Mayor Carol Leclerc, the issues were ongoing for several years and continued escalating.
She added businesses regularly dealt with discarded needles, and feces with staff often not feeling safe.
Corrigall believes it’s about time PG’s mayor and council followed suit.
“Mayor and council are responsible for what happens within our community whether it’s jurisdictional or not. As we look down the highway, to Terrace, their mayor and council took the time to fly to Victoria and met with a number of ministers and the premier and had a frank discussion about the issues. We are not seeing that out of our mayor and council.”
“We need leaders, we need people who are going to be accountable for their actions and accountable for the decisions,” added Corrigall.
He referenced a November 2019 meeting hosted by the chamber, which was open to the entire community and drew fantastic public feedback with many solutions put on the table.
However, all of those have fallen flat according to Corrigall with the city not acting on any of them.
A series of documents issued to the media by the chamber today (Monday) highlighted that numerous chamber groups across BC including Kelowna, Abbotsford, Nanaimo, and Prince George support the Four Pillars approach now known as “wrap-around” services. The City of Vancouver was the first municipality in Canada to green-light this approach.
This measure was first adopted in Europe during the 1990s and consists of prevention, harm reduction, enforcement, and treatment. According to the document, this has worked in major centres like Geneva and Zurich Switzerland, Frankfurt, Germany, and Sydney, Australia.
This has resulted in:
- A dramatic reduction in the number of drug users consuming drugs on the street
- A significant drop in overdose deaths
- Reduction in the infection rates for HIV and hepatitis
Corrigall thinks a city the size of PG is where you would see the benefits of a Four Pillars approach more intimately, which would mean they are hyper-focused.
“We have people who are drug-addicted that are living on the street. We have people that are mentally ill likely because of drug addiction that are living on the street and we have criminals that are living on the street. We aren’t providing the appropriate levels of support based on the individual needs to get to a point where solutions are possible.”
“If we have somebody who is severely mentally ill that is living in our streets, they are likely a danger to themselves and a danger to the public. We need to find solutions that help that person cope, manage and hopefully live a proper life. If we have people who are drug-addicted as a result of some trauma in their life we need to find mechanisms of support for them.”
“If we have bad people, bad people need to go to jail. We know we are not arresting ourselves out of this problem but we know there are criminals who prey on other homeless people and they prey on our community and that needs to be addressed. The bottom line is that four pillars are the closest option to not leaving anyone behind,” said Corrigall.
In 2019, the Union of BC Municipalities passed a resolution entitled Clean-Up Needles and Other Harm Reduction Paraphernalia.
This recognized it should be the province assuming the cost of cleaning up needles from their funded service. Currently, municipalities and businesses end up having to assume this clean-up, which the UBCM believes should be done by properly trained and resourced workers.
According to Corrigall, the chamber has submitted an idea for this where the BC government funds the training for either city parks or bylaw enforcement staff so that a set number of boots are on the ground at all times.
“It should not be business owners, it should not be community members who are concerned about taking their children somewhere because they might grab a used syringe off the ground. It needs to be headed by the organizations that are working on these programs.”
The Province of BC is looking to decriminalize the personal possession of drugs and has submitted its application to Health Canada.
The decriminalization submission lists the thresholds the government is looking for, noting that these numbers reflect actual patterns of use and possession:
- 4.5 grams of fentanyl
- 3.25 grams of heroin
- 4 grams of cocaine
- 4 grams of crack
- 10 grams of methamphetamine
Health Canada is seriously looking at BC’s submission but is considering lowering the threshold of the allowable drug to half of what’s being requested.
However, Corrigall stated there is research available on all points of this that would indicate what the safe thresholds are and how the distribution of these narcotics occurs.
He believes a “global approach” is needed by all provinces.
“Because what inevitably happens is when one province has a higher threshold, more people will go to that province and then you have created a new issue. If we look at decriminalization, in order to do this with these drugs, it requires a significantly higher investment in treatment, mental health and recovery and all of these processes.”
“What we cannot do, what we have been doing is leaving people to die on the streets and in their homes and that has to stop.”
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