Victoria’s much-anticipated Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan (CSWP) received near-unanimous approval during city council’s committee of the whole meeting this week.
This fulsome plan will see the City of Victoria act upon numerous recommendations, while also advocating to other levels of government to see that they do their part in acting upon the recommendations that are within their jurisdiction.
Basically, the CSWB will try to mitigate factors surrounding housing shortages, homelessness, substance misuse and addictions, inaccessible healthcare as well as mental health crises.
The way the plan would help aid those afflicted by these factors would be by changing the way the City, the Province, the federal government, VicPD, service providers and other organizations approach incidents of “disorder.”
According to the City, these factors have been the major contributors to increased disorder and diminished sense of safety in the community.
The plan was developed over an 18-month period using data-driven and community-focussed practices by a panel of experts within Victoria.
The plan outlines immediate and longer-term actions and is intended to adapt, adjust and respond to changing realities within the city.
In order to mitigate the contributing factors, the City’s CSWP focuses on the following key areas: housing; food security and poverty; belonging, social cohesion, and isolation; healthcare; transportation and mobility; safety and safety perception; mental healthcare; inequity; and service delivery.
Once these areas for improvement were identified, a grand total of 99 recommendations were made and compiled into a chart in the CSWP.
Of those, 46 are recommendations that can be acted upon by the City, whereas the remaining 53 are matters to be addressed by the BC government, federal government, VicPD or the Capital Regional District (CRD).
Included in the list is a timeline for action to be taken and which of the key factors above the recommendations will serve.
During the committee of the whole meeting, the plan was presented by several members of City staff as well as community members who helped guide the development of this plan.
Once it was presented and councilors had the opportunity to ask City staff questions about the CSWP, the meeting went into a closed session before returning for comment and council deliberation.
Councillor Marg Gardiner took issue with certain aspects of the CSWP during deliberation, saying that she believes drug addiction to be the “root cause” of Victoria’s street disorder.
“The acceptance of drug addiction does not help those who suffer from mental illness or brain damage and certainly doesn’t benefit our city,” said Gardiner.
Gardiner made these comments, despite an overwhelming amount of evidence that Victoria’s street disorder is caused by a myriad of factors which the CSWP would attempt to address.
She added that the plan will not work in the long-run because she believes the Province won’t comply with their recommendations.
“The plan itself cannot be realized with the current policies of the Province—it must pivot. I have full confidence that staff will complete the short-term actions which are related to safety in our downtown and elsewhere in the city,” stated Gardiner.
She added that the Province was “worse than a hurdle,” and they could “scuttle the whole thing.”
Gardiner ended up voting against the motion’s item to endorse this plan, though the remaining councillors all voted in favour of all aspects of the plan.
Next steps will see the CSWP come back before council for a final vote before the plan can begin to be set in motion.
The CSWP is 79 pages long in total, with the specific recommended actions beginning on page 52. See the full plan here.
