Just over 1,000 Prince George community members gathered into the CN Centre yesterday (Thursday) to both listen and share the challenges being faced in the city.
This was for the Safe Streets Rally, which was put together in hopes to get a better understanding on what residents want to see when it comes to crime and mental health through a live online poll.
Dr. Barbara Kane, medical lead in the Mental Health Program with Northern Health, hopes residents also walked out with a better understanding of the situation at hand.
“That was one of my goals, it’s to just explain how the system works.”
“How not having long-term involuntary care affects our psychiatric ward, that it affects the hospital, that affects emergency because it’s overcrowded, and then they’re out on the street and then there’s more crime. It’s like dominos.”
During the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in late September, Premier David Eby announced two involuntary care sites, with one coming to Prince George.
Business Owner and Downtown PG President, Eoin Foley, used the platform to push residents to continue demanding action.
“We want them to show our civic leaders, provincial leaders, federal leaders that we’ve had enough. We need them to step up and make these changes.”
“For those municipal leaders that can’t directly affect these changes, they need to be loud, and they need to be annoying, they need to be a thorn in the side for the provincial leaders for them to make the changes that they need to make.”
The event had six speakers share their experiences with the issues the city faces.
City Council members, MLA’s, and Cariboo – Prince George’s MP were in attendance for the rally, listening to business owners and residents, rather than speaking at the event.
“It’s a proliferation of enabling policies, that we enable drug use, we enable property crime, and then we’ve seen arsons that have happened in our community.” said Prince George – Mackenzie MLA, Kiel Giddens.
“All of this is because government has chosen to turn a blind eye to what’s happening, and we can’t do that anymore.”
It was announced that new legislation targeting bail reform will be tabled in the House of Commons next week, which Cariboo – Prince George MP Todd Doherty said actions have to happen now.
“We have Attorney Generals and Premiers, and police associations all across our country pushing for bail reform, and hopefully we’ll see what happens with this latest announcement.”
One thing was clear coming out of the rally, and that was the public’s demand for all levels of government to step up and take meaningful action.
Those that were unable to attend, or want more information, can find it on Downtown Prince George’s website here.
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