What’s missing from Vancouver’s plan to tackle organized crime?

One day after Vancouver’s mayor and police chief announced a $5 million plan to address crime in the city, some feel there’s something missing.

Walley Wargolet is the executive director of the Gastown Business Improvement Society. He appreciates the plan but says crime isn’t the only crisis playing out on local streets right now.

“The specific focus on the gang activity is welcomed. We, of course, wish it would have happened sooner but we’re glad there’s a focus happening now,” Wargolet told 1130 NewsRadio.

“This is just part of the solution to what’s happening. Some of these other public safety issues that folks are concerned about have absolutely nothing to do with policing. I think what was missing from the press conference is an update on where are the mental health care nurses?”

He’s referring to 2022 campaign promise from Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, who at the time promised he would hire 100 police officers and 100 nurses.

In a statement Thursday, the city said, “Mayor Sim and city council have fully funded the VPD and VFRS, hired 200 new police officers and 35 mental health workers.”

In a statement to 1130 NewsRadio, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), which is responsible for hiring the nurses, confirmed its initial framework is to hire 55 staff and specialists, including social workers, community liaison workers and other disciplines alongside nurses to help provide care. But to date, only 36 positions have been filled, with recruitment underway.

VCH detailed:

• *15 full-time equivalents (FTE) have been hired for the Mobile Crisis De-escalation Service; 17 FTE positions are still to be filled
• *10 FTE positions have been hired for the Car 87/88 program; all positions are filled
• *2 FTE positions have been hired for the Operations Centre Liaison Nurse (OCCLN) project; 2 FTE positions are still to be filled
• *9 FTE positions have been hired for the Indigenous Crisis Response Team (ICRT); all positions are filled

On Thursday morning, 1130 NewsRadio reported that more than 100 police officers had been hired but due to things like retirement and members going to other departments, like the Surrey Police Service (SPS), that number has been fluctuating and doesn’t necessarily mean there are 100 new officers with boots on the ground at any given time.

Wargolet says he received an update from the city in October on getting help to address mental health.

“This is this mobile de-escalation team, specifically geared towards helping folks with mental health issues on our streets — we still don’t see that fully activated. I know they’re doing some things…because constantly through our Gastown patrol we are seeing folks with mental health issues and we have no way to help them, and this is supposed to be doing that. Plus, where’s the investment… on wellness checks in the neighbourhood?”

“We need to address this issue as a humanitarian crisis.”

He points out business owners who had their storefronts broken into, windows smashed, had product stolen, or employees assaulted are exhausted.

“The continued vandalism that we’re seeing throughout the city… we’re seeing this really city-wide. The increase in violent attacks, again city-wide. One hundred per cent, we have folks who are on edge. A lot of our smaller businesses, they don’t have the financial capacity to continue to fix broken windows and also have to be that emotional support to their employees, and even then, being able to find someone potentially to work in their location. These are all things that are stacking up.”

Wargolet says in addition to providing mental health supports for those who need it, he’s also calling for it to be provided to business owners and employees who have had some “traumatic situations.”

In addition to pushing the city for help, he’s also calling on the provincial government for help.

“I have in my role and BIA’s in their roles for decades have been addressing this specific issue with the province and with the city and asking for help. And the fact that we still, four years after COVID, do not have these things in place is, to me honestly, shocking. We need to address this issue as a humanitarian crisis. If we were dealing with a natural disaster, we would cut the red tape, we would get the help to the people who need it immediately because we wouldn’t want to wait.”

Wargolet is frustrated.

“We need to do more. Just doing what you think you can is not going to cut it. We’ve been doing that… and new things have to be tried. We’ve had great ideas. Let’s stop talking about them and get them implemented immediately.”

The city has nicknamed its new task force “Barrage” which will have a hyper-focus on the Downtown Eastside.

In September last year, Statistics Canada data showed the overall per capita crime rate, based on police reports, was down in B.C. by about 3 per cent since 2018. The violent crime rate often cited by business leaders, shows it was up by more than 32 per cent since 2018, having spiked sharply in 2019, but it has been mostly unchanged since then. Vancouver and Victoria have both seen a 9 per cent rise in violent crime, per capita, since 2018, StatsCan data showed.

As of early November 2024, police in Vancouver shared that violent offences were down 6.6 per cent from the previous year; property crimes were down 10.7 per cent; and calls for service were down 0.4 per cent. Police say there were 12 “culpable” homicides in Vancouver in 2023; in 2024, there were only nine. Meanwhile, police response time in Vancouver increased by 0.8 per cent – five seconds slower than the same reporting period in 2023.

‘A day late and a dollar short’: city councillor calls mayor’s plan reactive

Vancouver Green Party Coun. Pete Fry says what’s missing from the mayor’s plan is proactivity.

“It seems a day late and a dollar short to be inviting a new $5 million investment in more policing, barely a month after we approved a budget for more policing,” said Fry.

“And I’d like to see a little bit more detail into what they’re proposing. Because at the end of the day, I think what is needed is a lot more thoughtful service delivery in the Downtown Eastside that we’re not seeing right now, and frankly, like new investments in policing, while welcome to address violent predators in the Downtown Eastside, I don’t think is really meeting a lot of the needs, which calls for a more proactive approach.”

He says critics are generally concerned by a rise in violence in the area. Prevention, Fry explains, starts with offering more supports, in direct contrast to the mayor’s promise to stop net new supportive housing in Vancouver.

“It doesn’t really address the root causes that find a lot of people in these vulnerable situations in the first place. And I think that is really where we’re missing the mark. And the mayor, on one hand, talks about eliminating supportive housing, but at the same time, seeks to really enforce on people who lack housing and who lack a lot of the supports that they need.”

Fry says the task force announcement seems incoherent and poorly justified.

“If this hasn’t been a priority, what has been the priority? Because we have one of the best-funded police forces in the entire country, and if we haven’t been targeting organized criminals in the Downtown Eastside who were preying on vulnerable populations, what have we been spending our money on?”

Overall, Fry says Sim’s plan seems “reactive.”

“It’s not something that I support,” said Fry.

Fiona York, an advocate for people who are homeless in the Downtown Eastside and nearby encampments, says she and others are skeptical of the city’s intentions, and not for the first time.

“It’s not to say that people would be opposed to going after organized crime, per se, necessarily. But it’s just like, ‘How is that actually going to shake down to people on the ground?’ No matter what you say, really, there’s very little trust and very little faith in this current policing environment.”

She says crackdowns and limited supportive housing will likely lead to wrongful arrests and other trouble.

“For people who are caught up in this, it can be a lifetime of in and out of warrants, and the court system, and the justice system, which is so, so difficult when you’re already struggling with so many things. It just sets people back so far. If they’re on a sobriety journey, if they’re on a family journey, reunification, like there’s so many things, so many huge impacts this could have. And somebody who’s just caught by the wayside of something that you know is rolled out with a stated purpose.”

—With files from Ben Bouguerra, Renee Bernard, and Charlie Carey