Terrace council find progress on crime concerns; as BC Liberals turns up heat on government

Terrace Mayor Carol Leclerc has noted some progress with the Provincial government over a number of concerns that a delegation from the Skeena Valley City brought to the Victoria last week, the Terrace group making the rounds of a number of cabinet ministers to share their call for action on crime and social concerns.

As part of their tour the Terrace group, made up of Mayor Leclerc, Councillor Sean Bujtas, and Chief Administrative Officer Kris Boland, made a presentation that highlighted the challenges with theft and public safety in Terrace. 

Their presentation focused on how prolific offenders are handled in the justice system and how this treatment ends up affecting businesses, who face repeated theft, intimidation, threats of violence, and vandalism, as highlighted in several letters the City received from local businesses and organizations that were used to support the sharing of information with the government officials.

The Terrace delegation brought several requests with them for consideration of the provincial officials, among some of those were: 

That Crown Counsel be assigned to the City’s situation table and that an integrated court program, like those in places like Victoria and Kelowna, be created for Terrace. 

That the Strengthening Communities UBCM funding be looked at using different criteria. “Currently, it is based on population. We explained that our RCMP members have more than double the cases of the provincial average and if we could get 6–8 community safety officers, they would be less expensive than adding additional RCMP," 

A focus on the Northern First Nations Alliance’s request for a detox and wellness centre in the Northwest, which the City of Terrace supports.

“We were pleased with the ministers’ response to our presentation. They recognized the challenges of attracting Crown Counsel and RCMP staff to rural and remote areas and indicated they are working on how to incentivize people to take these positions. They are aware that communities like Terrace are hubs in their regions that should be recognized as such. They would also like us to reach out directly regarding prolific offenders in the future so that they can be dealt with.” -- Terrace Mayor Carol Leclerc

The City of Terrace has had a long running frustration over the issues of crime and social issues, declaring a state of crisis in the community related to those concerns last year.

The full review of the delegations time in the provincial capital last week can be reviewed here.

Among those that received the Terrace delegation were Minister Cullen (Municipal Affairs), Minister Farnworth (Public Safety and Solicitor General), and Minister Eby (Attorney General and Minister responsible for Housing) and Senior staff member from Mental Health and Addictions also participated in the sessions.

At the request of Skeena MLA. Ellis Ross, the Terrace group also delivered their presentation to the BC Liberal caucus, which seemingly were attentive students, as they returned to the Legislature yesterday with Crime on their minds and made the Tuesday morning session Crime Day at the Leg.

Those Liberals who took up the theme of crime in their communities and across the province were MLA's Michael Lee, Renne Merrifield, Teresa Wat, Mike Morris, Lorne Doerkson, Todd Stone and Peter Milobar.

Also speaking to the topic as part of the Question Period of the Tuesday session was Skeena MLA Ellis Ross, who first raised the issues of concern last week, yesterday he returned to those themes in a call for the government to respond to the calls from the Terrace group.

Terrace remains in a crisis over the level of crime, but the Attorney General's response last week was to pretend there wasn't a problem. "We're seeing progress." That answer was far from the reality that people are experiencing, not only in Terrace, but in all our communities, all across B.C. 

After watching a repeat offender walk right out of the store with an entire canoe — packing an entire canoe out of Canadian Tire — Canadian Tire wrote to me: "There is absolutely no reason not to steal — none — because there are no consequences when you do steal." 

This is what the people of Terrace are living with. This is what the businesses of Terrace are living with on a daily basis. 

Just last week at our local legion, branch 13, for the third time in two years, there was a fire set. Third time in two years, and nothing was done. 

My question is to the Attorney General — what will it take for the Attorney General to take public safety seriously, and prosecute these repeat offenders?

In reply, Attorney General David Eby relayed the progress of his talks with the Terrace group, noting that the issues were larger than just criminal activity, with a partnership of many ministries of government in motion to work on the complex concerns that is needed to interrupt the cycle that many communities are seeing.

"Obviously, the member quoted five words from a lengthy answer that I gave him about Crown approval rates. I did not deny that there was an issue in Terrace. In fact, I said at the end of my answer that I look forward to working with the member and with the mayor and council to address the issues in Terrace. 

That's exactly what I said. The member can check Hansard. 

And in fact, that's exactly what happened. I met with the mayor and council from Terrace. I met with the Minister for Municipal Affairs. The member can read the summary of that meeting in the Terrace Standard by the mayor. 

It was very constructive. She had a sense of hope that we'll be able to work together to address this issue. I invite the member to be a part of that solution." 

The full morning of Questions and Answers can be explored through the Legislature Hansard archive; while the video of the Tuesday morning session can be viewed here.

More notes from the Legislature can be reviewed here.

A wider overview of issues and items of interest from Terrace is available here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.