By Mayor Lee Pratt

You have my commitment to meet with any group at any time where the purpose is to secure solutions to Cranbrook’s crime and homelessness crisis.

That is why this past week I met with members of the Community Action Initiative; a group created to support community-led projects focusing on mental health and substance use issues. In fact, all of Cranbrook council was invited to attend and myself and two other councillors did attend.

My challenger has done a lot of talking about fixing the issue, but at the first opportunity, during this election, to meet with a group who can assist with mental health and substance use issues, he was a no show.

Earlier this past month council was also invited to UBCM (Union of BC Municipalities), a gathering of municipalities, to compare notes and discuss solutions to difficult issues. This year’s event centred, in large part, around the issue of homelessness and included focused discussions on the following:

• Local grown solutions to homelessness and addiction;
• Decriminalization and harm reduction: key considerations for local governments;
• Local government’s role in B.C.’s mental health crisis.

These are critical meetings that my challenger, in his role as city councillor, chose not attend.

He says he “will be on the front line, working for the citizens of Cranbrook every day, to make sure our city is safe.” He says that he will form a working group to address the issue, but when presented with opportunities to take action he has been a no show. He did not show up for the Community Action Initiative and he did not show up at UBCM to participate in discussions that will lead to solving the problem.

He is committed, however, to moving this crisis, complete with crime levels and access to drugs, to a location across the street from our high school.

The majority of residents I have heard from don’t agree with the location and when pressed my challenger blamed the provincial government, saying “At this time the shelter is under the government’s control, through BC Housing, and the city has no authority or control to have it relocated.”

This is a bureaucratic answer to an informed resident who knows that my challenger, in his role as councillor, voted in favour of a motion that would change zoning and pave the way for this crisis to move to the doorstep of our children’s high school.

I am opposed to, and voted against, migrating or expanding this crisis to include proximity to students, a day care, youth hockey facilities and the thousands of families who use the rec-plex every year. We must acknowledge that our children and grandchildren deserve better than barbed wire, rising crime and tent cities. These are not solutions.

On October 15 you have a choice. If you’d like four more years of a straightforward and honest Mayor who will show up to work, listen and work hard to solve difficult issues, then I am asking for your support.

Our community is demanding action, and I will not ignore it.

e-KNOW file photo

Article Share