Task force zeroing in

Photo: Axis Intervention

Darrin Taylor chairs the Activate Safety Task Force

While the discussion regarding Vernon's street-entrenched population continues, many business owners directly affected are looking to the Activate Safety Task Force to provide some answers.

The task force was set up with the goal of addressing the issues related to the impacts of homelessness, poverty, addictions, and criminal behaviour on the local business community.

"One thing that's become clear to me over the course of meeting with, and talking to, people in Vernon is the degree of frustration felt by both business owners and members of the public at what they see as the degradation of the city," said Darrin Taylor chair of the task force. 

Members of the task force have been meeting regularly as they form recommendations for city council. 

"We are zeroing in on having our documents completed, recommendations ironed out, and we expect to present to city council in July."

Taylor says the task force has broken down its recommendations into seven or eight areas of concern.   

"What became apparent, and the consensus in the room was that we had to come up with recommendations that were clear and precise - something that could be acted upon in a fairly short amount of time."

Taylor says the recommendations that will be brought forward in July will not focus on a two or three-year rollout, but instead succinct points the city could take action on in short order, if it chooses to.

"The immediate and most effective change the city might be able to make is to expand, for instance, the hours that bylaw officers are working and change their rules of engagement," he says. "That is a much more fluid process than saying we have to hire more RCMP officers."

The City of Vernon has approved funding for up to six more RCMP members, but at a recent council meeting the acting officer in charge of the  Vernon detachment,  Insp. Gord Stewart admitted there was no clear timetable for E Division to hire said officers. 

"We are not attempting to solve the root causes of homelessness, drug addiction, crime, or poverty," says Taylor. "Those are huge issues and there are already tens of millions of dollars devoted to those issues at the provincial and federal levels. We are simply attempting to find solutions to the impacts of these problems on the business community in Vernon." 

Taylor says he feels positive about the work being done by the task force so far.  

"You know we go into these things with some of us thinking that there's going to be some magic recommendation that is going to alter the landscape and change everything. But, perhaps over time, stacking some of these recommendations on top of the other creates an environment where it becomes more and more uncomfortable for people who would engage in lawless behaviour on the streets of our lovely city to do that. The more uncomfortable it gets the quicker we will see change."