Three Vancouver city councillors who are expected to align as a trio in the October municipal election are hosting a virtual forum on public safety Thursday to hear from residents concerned about crime in their neighbourhoods.
Sarah Kirby-Yung, Rebecca Bligh and Lisa Dominato announced the forum Monday via a news release and said it will be the first topic in a series of public conversations called “Speaking of Vancouver.”
“Vancouverites are telling us they’re concerned about public safety, and they want to know what’s happening to the city,” Dominato said. “Many people are feeling unsafe and that’s changing how they feel about their neighbourhoods.”
60 assaults
The councillors said news about 60 assaults over the Family Day weekend — with a third being stranger attacks — and the random attack on at least five women in Vancouver’s Fairview neighbourhood Saturday made public safety the obvious choice to kick off the series.
Business owners in Downtown and Chinatown have also complained about the increase in broken windows, social disorder and graffiti since the pandemic was declared in March 2020. At the same time, property crime has plummeted over the past two years.
The forum will feature Vancouver Deputy Police Chief Howard Chow, Nolan Marshall, president and CEO of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, and Guy Felicella, a harm reduction and recovery advocate.
Kirby-Yung, who is married to a police officer, said in an interview that she and her two colleagues planned to send a letter Monday to the Vancouver Police Board to request a meeting about public safety.
Although acknowledging Police Chief Adam Palmer makes operational decisions for the department, Kirby-Yung said having a unified voice with council and the police board on the need for more resources to address issues related to mental illness, drug addiction and homelessness is important.
The trio was elected in 2018 as members of the Non-Partisan Association. Bligh was the first to resign from the party, followed by Kirby-Yung, Dominato and Colleen Hardwick, who has since joined TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.
'Not doing this as political initiative'
The trio of Bligh, Kirby-Yung and Dominato now sit as independents. When they ran in 2018, Ken Sim was the NPA’s mayoral candidate. He is now the mayoral candidate for new civic party, A Better City, and looking for council candidates.
“We're not doing this as a political initiative,” Kirby-Yung said. “We're doing this as city councillors, and based on what we're hearing from residents. And that’s completely separate from whatever we may or may not do in terms of running again, or how we run. This is really just doing the job while we’re in the job.”
Mayor Kennedy Stewart and Vancouver’s 10 city councillors have all told Vancouver Is Awesome that they plan to seek re-election in October.
Crime is expected to be one of the issues in the campaigns. Whether it gets more prominence than housing is an open question.
“I think it's going to be one important election issue, but I not sure it'll be the singular issue because I think there's a lot of things that people are concerned about like housing affordability and small business recovery,” Kirby-Yung said.
Housing, affordability, city services, economic development, transportation and climate change are expected to be future topics in the forums. Citizens interested in participating in Thursday’s forum must register at speakingofvan.ca
The forum runs from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
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