Downtown business owner cautiously optimistic as Conservatives outline public-safety plan

Now, Foley says he is cautiously optimistic that political change could bring a different approach to public safety, addiction and mental-health challenges.

The interim leader of the newly elected Conservative Party, Lorne Doerkson, recently laid out a public-safety agenda that calls for more police, greater access to mental-health and addiction treatment and changes to the way people experiencing severe mental illness or addiction are dealt with.

“What was promised to be a policy of care has turned into an era of unchecked crime, open drug use and public violence,” Doerkson said at a news conference. “Basic law enforcement has been sidelined and the result is disorder on our streets.”

The Conservative plan calls for more police in neighbourhoods experiencing significant street disorder, along with expanded psychiatric services, crisis response and residential treatment.

It also proposes what the party calls “compassionate intervention,” under which people experiencing severe addiction, mental illness or brain injury could be taken off the street and into care.

The Conservatives also want police to have a greater role in enforcing the Mental Health Act and are proposing changes to the legislation that would allow officers to connect people with mandatory treatment.

On policing, the party proposes hiring and deploying 250 additional police officers by expanding the Justice Institute of British Columbia Police Academy. It also calls for 500 additional RCMP officers and 150 civilian employees over five years, with the stated goal of increasing policing capacity in rural and regional communities.

The justice system is another component of the plan.

The Conservatives are proposing 50 new Crown prosecutors and say they would work with Ottawa to fund 20 additional trial judges. The proposal also calls for increased sheriff and court capacity in an effort to reduce delays.

Drug policy would also change under the Conservative plan. The party says it would end the NDP government’s “safe supply” approach while expanding access to naloxone. It also proposes stopping illegal drug use in hospitals, shelters and publicly funded supportive housing.

The party says it would publicly report results in areas including repeat offending, bail compliance, court delays, treatment access and long-term recovery.

For Foley, however, the party proposing the solutions matters less than whether those solutions actually produce results.

“I think I, like most people, don’t really care all that much about which political party one aligns with,” he said. “We care a lot more about results, and we haven’t really seen results, so much in the last decade, that we’d like to see.”

Foley says harm reduction has a role, but argues it cannot stand alone.

“There is a lot of good harm reduction work, but that’s only a piece of the pie, and we haven’t seen the rest of it,” he said. “We need better treatment options across the board.”

He says that means developing a full continuum of care rather than relying on numerous organizations working independently.

“We need the full continuum of care and not a patchwork system with many different siloed organizations that are trying to offer services and not communicating, and letting the vulnerable people fall through the cracks constantly.”

Foley acknowledges significant change will not happen immediately, particularly with fiscal pressures facing the provincial government.

“These things don’t happen overnight,” he said.

He argues, however, that improving services does not necessarily mean relying exclusively on major increases in spending.

“Obviously, our government in Victoria is very cognizant of a huge deficit that we have right now. So it’s not likely going to splash the cash so much,” Foley said. “But I think there’s a lot of efficiencies that need to be highlighted and worked on within the systems that we have.”

Foley points to the money taxpayers already spend on health care, public safety and emergency services and says he wants to see better results from those existing investments.

The political changes are not limited to Victoria.

Five new faces are also set to join council chambers locally, and Foley noted that public safety featured prominently during the campaign.

He hopes the municipal and provincial governments can take complementary approaches.

“Given that we have a very new council and a new government in Victoria, it’s kind of exciting,” he said.

“With a bunch of fresh faces that are maybe a little more gung ho, both in Victoria and locally,” Foley added, “we’re definitely looking forward to working with our new council and new mayor on some of these issues.”

For Foley, the key question for the new municipal government is what can realistically be accomplished at the local level to improve daily life downtown.

He wants to see concrete steps that make it safer to operate a business and that help customers and employees feel comfortable downtown, while also addressing the community’s image.

After years of calling on the province for better outcomes, Foley says the prospect of change at both levels of government offers some room for optimism.

But expectations will quickly collide with the realities of governing.

Neither of the new governments referenced has yet been sworn in, meaning the Conservative proposals remain proposals and the new municipal council has not yet had an opportunity to put its public-safety promises into action.

For businesses and advocacy groups that say they have spent years asking for change, the next test will be turning campaign commitments into measurable results.

by Cheryl Jahn

Downtown business owner cautiously optimistic as Conservatives outline public-safety plan

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