Downtown businesses fed up with safety concerns

“We see the song and dance, everybody has an excuse, but nobody’s delivering, right? We can’t afford not to see delivery anymore. We’re expected to pay taxes promptly. We’re expected to pay our business licenses promptly. Well, you know what? We expect policing. We expect the city to do what it’s supposed to do,” Zukowski said.

“Three weeks is what I’m going to give them for a time window. Or they’ll be hearing from a bunch of the business owners en masse. That’s where we’re at right now. We’re beyond asking, we’re beyond being polite,” he continued.

While some issues may not be directly in the City’s control, such as provincial funding or legislation, he says the City needs to either find solutions around this or go to the province directly.

Prince George RCMP Superintendent Shaun Wright said he is aware of the downtown safety concerns, but has been actively working to fix it. While reinforcements could be on the way soon via provincial funding, Wright added he is currently focused on using the resources he has more efficiently.

“We’re readjusting the shifts of our downtown safety unit to when the most people and the most problems are occurring. We consistently review that data and and redeploy our officers based on that.”

Mayor Simon Yu, similarly to Wright, also said he understands why business owners are upset, and understands more needs to be done. However, he pointed to several things the City has done, such as increase RCMP officers from 142 to 149, and increase Bylaw officers’ presence throughout downtown to seven days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. since this current council has been elected. While Yu acknowledged this alone isn’t enough, he did point to how overall crime rates have lowered; which is likely due to the increased police presence. While more police usually leads to a safer city, Yu hopes to create long lasting change which will require more than just an increased police force.

“We need to get to the root of the problem. How they (criminals) got started, is it drug related, where are the criminals operating, where they took the goods to. We need to do a little bit more research in terms of as a community to make sure this kind of crime, criminal activity does not happen in our area,” Yu said.

Yu said he’s working on solutions with other municipalities because Prince George is a hub for Northern B.C., and these solutions would take time to implement. While it’s possible this could make Prince George safer in the long run, Zukowski says we need action now.

“We are fed up. We can’t turn around and chase the RCMP to upgrade the policing. That’s the job of of city council and the mayor. They’ve been in office for a year, it’s time for them to either pick up or move out. They’ve got to start doing something to improve the quality of downtown and the safety of the whole community, or step out of the way and let somebody else do it. But we can no longer carry on with this,” Zukowski said.

Yu says he and the City are dedicated to helping make our downtown safer, and hopes to work with business owners to find solutions together. He invites any business owners to attend public hearings at city council meetings to share their thoughts, and hopes council and the businesses can collaborate to improve the situation for everybody.

by Tommy Osborne

Downtown businesses fed up with safety concerns

What's Trending