Good Monday to you. Hope you had a restful weekend. I saw the Cougars play and win but I missed the northern lights (a bad side effect of twitter dying is no longer seeing those posts in realtime of everyone telling you to go look outside). Here’s today’s newsletter.

Nightclub owner suing City of Prince George for negligence on downtown property crime

Ted Clarke in the Citizen reports:

The article goes on to quote Heartbreakers owner Trevor Sakamoto saying, “I honestly believe the city has let down business owners on the downtown core of Prince George and they need to be held accountable,” and “In the last election the mayor said he would clean up crime downtown and he hasn’t done what he said would be done. They’ve let crime go to the point where it’s uncontrollable.”

You can read the full thing here.

Now, I absolutely need to stress I am not a lawyer and I am not giving a legal opinion on this. Nor am I commentating on the merit of the claim (which I have not read in full) nor am I in any way trying to say anyone is right or wrong in any of this. I simply wish to express my curiousity, and questions, about this case — which, so far, has only been filed in court — no response from the city, yet (this is normal, first the lawsuit needs to be filed than the party being sued needs to get a chance to respond) — there has been no judgement.

My main question is: Why (just) the city? Policing is not simply a municipal matter. The RCMP is a federal police force. Likewise, criminal law is under federal jurisdiction. The province, broadly, is responsible prosecution services. And all three levels of government are responsible for paying for police. I’m curious as to why the city is being viewed as more liable here than the federal or provincial levels of government, which certainly have a role to play.

Then there’s the statement of the mayor not doing enough to “clean up crime downtown.” Let’s move beyond the mayor and extend that to the city as a whole — council and administration. Since Prince George — like most municipalities in B.C. — uses the RCMP as a police force, there is a funding formula it adheres to, paying for 90 per cent of the police budget while the federal government pays the other 10 per cent. The number of police is set based on population, and the city has to pay for 90 per cent of at least those many officers. It has continuously done that, and the annual police budget is the single biggest operating expense the city has — coming in at roughly $30 million annually. That’s historically more than is spent by Kamloops and Nanaimo and several other cities with larger populations.

And that has gone up, too — in the most recent budget, council voted to spend an additional $1 million a year to hire four new officers and two new civilian support staff after RCMP threatened to remove the downtown enforcement unit because they saw they were overworked.

This is where there may be some wiggle room — because a city-commissioned report found police here are dealing with a higher caseload than other cities in the province, reducing their ability to be proactive, so that might help the lawsuit. On the other hand, it would be tough, I think, to point blame directly at (and solely) at the city for the crime rate here being higher — you’d have to prove causation going back… I have no idea how long. Plus, the city response to hearing about this high caseload was to immediately increase the police budget, in part to preserve downtown patrols. So while I’m sure Sakamoto isn’t alone in feeling not enough is being done, I’d also be curious to what — especially from a legal perspective — would be enough.

If a business can successfully sue the city for crime, can other victims of crime do the same? What is the right amount of money the city should be spending on this problem — and are they legally liable for not raising taxes or cutting the budget elsewhere to try and hire even more officers? There is crime in every community on the continent, so presumably the expectation of no crime isn’t at play here — but if not none, how much is the acceptable level of crime to the point that a city can’t be sued when one occurs?

What of the fact recruitment is a challenge across all police forces so there’s no guarantee you would get every officer you have the budget for? (indeed, it has been the case in the past where the city has been prepared to pay for more police officers than the RCMP has been able to provide).

Beyond that, every single council meeting I’ve listened to where policing has come up, councillors have asked RCMP about sending more patrols downtown and they’ve been told by the police that they place officers where they are needed based on a myriad of factors — so are the police to blame here, too? And what if there were more officers downtown and a business was broken into in College Heights - can that business sue, as well?

Again, the lawsuit has just been filed, so any number of things could happen. But if it moves forward, I imagine there are plenty of other businesses upset about crime across the country who will be watching to see if they should sue their own municipal government next — especially in cities that pay less per capita for police than Prince George.

A B.C. Beer Award for Deadfall

The B.C. Beer Awards were this weekend and Prince George’s newest brewery took home the award for best specialty IPA — one of the very few breweries outside of greater Vancouver/Vancouver Island to be recognized.

Kevin Falcon thinks Pierre Pollievre is helping out John Rustad

Kevin Falcon, the leader of the B.C. United Party (formerly the B.C. Liberals) was in town last week announcing that Shirley Bond will once again be running to represent Prince George-Valemount while Coralee Oakes will be running in her Cariboo-based riding once again, too, which this time will include part of College Heights. One promise he made was that if elected he would fast-track fixing the Taylor Bridge between Dawson Creek and Fort St. John which is a reminder to me that sometime I need to write about how the Taylor Bridge has become a symbol of northeastern B.C.’s alienation from the province to the point that it’s a highly localized meme. But for the purposes of today’s newsletter I just want to point out that he thinks one reason John Rustad and the B.C. Conservatives are doing so well is people are confused and think they are affiliated with the federal Conservatives who are polling well under Pierre Poilievre. So there’s that!

Posts:

Quick news:

• River levels at the Nechako and Fraser are at historic lows, cuasing problems for local ecosystems. Beavers could help.

• You can help build houses for ducks.

• A Cottonwood tree that killed a man in Paddlewheel Park in 2021 has been removed.

• High school enrollment up, elementary down in SD57 (though it’s mostly stable on both fronts).

• Stolen firefighting equipment from the Yukon could be in Northern B.C.

• The Cougars rack up two more wins for a 9-3-0 record.

• UNBC Men’s Timberwolves eliminated from competition after weekend loss.

• Tabor Mountain Bike Trail expansion opens up new riding territory.

• Former hockey trainer Stu Berry remembered as consummate Spruce King.

• International players with Spruce Kings adjusting to Canadian life.

• Downtown merchants band together to deal with challenges.

• Queensway tree and vegetation clearing starts October 24.

• Drum Run Adventure Tour making its way to Prince George.

• Day of Caring project cleans up Hart Pioneer Centre garden.

• Fundraising dinner helps children in rural India.

• The Sheepdogs are coming to town.

Today’s song is just a 30 second transition but it’s been in my head all weekend:

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