“Our small business owners need a safe environment.”: UBCM President sounds off on street disorder

Another Prince George City Councillor is leading the Union of BC Municipalities.

Cori Ramsay was named the organization’s new president, succeeding Coquitlam councillor Trish Mandewo.

The last local representative to become UBCM President was Murry Krause back in 2016-17.

The announcement will be made official on Friday.

While speaking outside the B.C. Legislature yesterday (Thursday), Ramsay lamented there is a lot at stake for many communities as the issue of public disorder worsens, mainly mental health and addictions as well as homelessness.

Ramsay stated the status quo simply isn’t good enough anymore, especially after the massive Crossroads fire in downtown PG that resulted in $1.8 million dollars in damage.

“Downtown residents feel frustrated and unsafe and downtown business owners feel besieged. We know that underlying issues for street disorder are complex, the availability of housing, the opioid crisis and the mental health crisis and the prevalence of repeat offending all have an impact.”

“We need to ensure that our small business leaders have a safe environment in which they can provide the services that are essential to our residents and employ British Columbians.”

Ramsay added while progress has been made to address supportive housing, other service gaps got wider and need urgent attention.

“The province has taken meaningful steps on social housing and through programs to address homelessness like heart and Harth, unfortunately, the gaps in service have become so great that communities across B.C. now have a chronic issue with homelessness and street disorder.”

“You can see though how widespread this is when you consider we have resolutions from across different communities calling for improvements to provincial service delivery and federal laws.”

Crossroads owner Daryl Leiski stated he will not rebuild his downtown location under the current climate and his letter to Premier Eby will be presented today (Thursday) by PG Mayor and Council during their meeting.

Those feelings were publicized during a Standing Committee on Public Safety meeting last week.

57-year-old Richard Titchener has since been arrested and charged with arson causing damage to property in relation to the file.

The UBCM Convention wraps up tomorrow (Friday) in Victoria.