Nearly half of B.C. businesses experience crime: poll

A recent poll finds that nearly half of the businesses in B.C. have reported experiencing crime directly or indirectly

Canadian Federation of Independent Business spokesperson Emily Boston says challenges most commonly faced in B.C. are waste and litter, vandalism, breaking and entering, theft, and shoplifting.

“As we approach the Christmas shopping season, unfortunately, there’s a lot of people that don’t feel comfortable frequenting areas or small businesses,” she said.

“It’s a range of challenges all stemming from different issues, but overall this means that businesses are losing revenue and losing foot traffic.”

Boston says this level of frequent crime is hurting small businesses the most, and tells CityNews she feels that various levels of government need to step in and take action.

“Unfortunately, because there are so many complex factors that contribute to crime and community safety, we’re seeing that this buck is being passed around to different levels of government and different parts of it,” she said.

“We’re encouraging government to take accountability and properly address these issues with small business voices at the table.”

The poll comes just days after the formation of the Save Our Streets Coalition, a group made up of B.C. business and community members concerned about theft and vandalism.