PROVINCIAL CONGRESS ON PUBLIC SAFETY (2005)

 

To make communities safe, our public and business communities require new tools and leadership at all levels. The recent Throne Speech provides for a “Provincial Congress on Public Safety” and builds on the earlier Premier’s Task Force to tackle the challenge of mental illness, homelessness and addictions in BC communities. As such, the upcoming Provincial Congress on Public Safety provides a leadership forum.

 

The recent BC Throne Speech promises the BC “government will engage all levels of government in a common review of steps that might be taken within their respective jurisdictions to take public safety to a higher level. A special Provincial Congress on Public Safety will be convened later this year. It will look across the board at crime prevention, treatment, legislation and by-laws, policing, prosecution, courts, and corrections.” The Throne Speech committed new safer communities’ resources “to make BC the best place to raise a family” with such initiatives as:

 

·  100 per cent traffic fine revenues to BC's municipalities for crime prevention and policing

·  $122 million in new funding for 215 police officers over the next three years

·  improve policing in rural and smaller communities, including aboriginal communities

·  crack down on cyber crimes and better protect children from sexual predators

·  integrated approaches to policing, homicide investigation, and criminal prosecution

·  Amber Alert system will help solve child abductions

·  reduce impaired driving and discourage aggressive panhandling and unsafe activities

·  policing and enforcement powers along the SkyTrain corridor

·  legislation will be tabled to ensure criminals do not profit from their crimes

·  federal Criminal Code is applied by our police and courts at all levels

·  hard look at the sentencing options and guidance given to our courts by legislators in problem areas like violent crime, organized crime, drug trafficking, marijuana grow ops, and car theft.

 

In the news release dated September 24, 2004, the Premier of BC established a special task force to establish the framework for an integrated program to tackle the challenge of mental illness, homelessness and addictions in BC communities. The Premier stated,  “we can care for those in need and make our streets safer.  We’ll do more to improve shelter options for people in need of housing, and more to improve drug and alcohol treatment programs to help those who want to break out of the cycle of dependency, dysfunction and despair that addictions create.  People need clean, safe rooms, treatment for illness, counseling, training and jobs.  To provide those things, we need a strong economy and a strong fiscal foundation – and BC now has both.”

 

THE CHAMBER RECOMMENDS:

 

That the provincial governments Congress on Public Safety;

 

1. includes the full participation by the Task Force on mental illness, homelessness and addictions.

 

2. be accountable to the public and business communities with common indicators and benchmarks to measure and track performance.

 

3. makes the more efficient use of justice and social services delivery on a regional and local basis in the most cost-effective manner; and

 

4. provide leadership within the public and business communities in all BC jurisdictions.