Victoria mayor pitches new community safety plan
Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto is pitching the creation of a new "Community Safety and Wellbeing Initiative" that takes a multi-pronged approach to safety in the downtown core.
The initiative would look at ways to improve downtown safety, both through city's own efforts and its behind the scenes support of partner agencies.
"Mayor and council recognize that increasing community safety and wellbeing for people living in Victoria requires a collective approach to multiple complex issues, such as declining civility and social cohesion, increasing social disorder, inadequate housing supply and homelessness, poverty, inequality, addictions, mental and physical health challenges, criminal activity, and other factors," reads the motion to be tabled by Alto.
"These efforts should include immediate interventions to reduce crime and chaos while creating longer term solutions."
The motion will be considered by city council on Thursday.
If the plan is adopted by council, it would give the city guidelines on how to approach issues like vandalism and assaults, and could include alternate ways of policing.
"[Police] have told us many times of their own frustrations about how much they are being asked to do for which they are not trained and do not have the capacity, from a resources perspective, to deal with," Alto told CTV News on Wednesday.
"We acknowledge that and so we want to make sure that we build on what policing can do well, which is a great deal, but to completely reimagine the way we resource and present different programs to deal with wellbeing and community safety," she said.
Alto's proposed initiative focuses on six pathways to improving community safety, according to her motion.
- Support a range of civilian, bylaw and policing crisis response and prevention services.
- Beautify, support and enhance Victoria’s downtown and urban villages.
- Advance city policies that support accessibility, equity, diversity and inclusion through a social justice lens.
- Develop and implement a community safety plan.
- Support innovative, wellbeing solutions to reduce harm for housed and unhoused people living in neighbourhoods where there are shelters.
- Work with partner agencies and governments to create life opportunities for unhoused people.
If adopted, the plan would be developed over the next 12 to 18 months.
The motion comes just weeks after city council approved a nearly $1 million plan to beautify downtown, largely by using revenue generated by recently increased parking fees.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Pilot reported fire onboard plane carrying fuel, attempted to return to Fairbanks just before crash
One of the two pilots aboard an airplane carrying fuel reported there was a fire on the airplane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal aviation official said Wednesday.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.