Canada's fastest-growing city grapples with how to manage rising crime rates

Police and Crown prosecutors say they need more support to deal with crime in the city of Kelowna, B.C., as it experiences rapid growth.

But the province'sAttorney General David Eby says the government needs to focus its efforts on addressing the root causes of crime rather than itsaftermath.

"If we want to interrupt the cycle that some people are in, we need to deal with the addiction and mental issues that some people have," he said.

The comments come following a dispute between Kelowna RCMP and the B.C. Prosecution Service over who is responsible for complaints that property crimes and petty thefts are going unaddressed in the community.

They also come as Kelowna sees rapid growth as the fastest-growing metropolitan area in Canada and tries to deal with the growing pains that come with it.

A backlog of cases

The dispute between police and the prosecution servicebegan during a presentation to Kelowna city council on Feb. 28 about the previous year's crime rates, which saw increases in several categories including assaults and property crime.

RCMP Supt. Kara Triancetold council thatalthough police are making arrests, they have faceddelays in getting charges approved by Crown counsel, who are responsible for deciding whether a case will go to trial.

Triance said nearly 80 per cent of the files they passed on to the Crown in 2021 were still waiting for assessment.

But prosecution service communications counsel Dan McLaughlin called the claim "grossly inaccurate" and issueda statement sayingthe majority of cases in Kelownaare dealt with within 30 days.

However, the B.C. Crown Counsel Association, which represents Crown lawyers in the province, said regardless of the exact numbers there is still a severe backlog of cases in the Kelowna region that needs to be addressed.

Growing complaints of crime

"Kelowna is growing, and our workload there is growing, too," association president Kevin Marks said in a release.

According to Statistics Canada, Kelowna led the country in growth among censusmetropolitan areas between 2016 and 2021, growing by 14 per cent, or more than 27,000 people.

The data-gathering agency also found Kelowna had one of the fastest-growing crime rates in the country in both 2019 and 2020,when it was ranked third in the country overall.

Marks said his group has been asking the governmentsince 2017 to hire additional prosecutors in Kelownato help deal with theincrease and that the prosecutors who are in the city are severely overworked.

"They work nights and weekends to get the job done," he said. "When Crown counsel offices are not adequately resourced, there is a real risk that justice will not be served."

All of this comes as business ownersin Kelowna are demanding more action from authorities to deal with crime.

Local news outlet Castanet has reported on multiple properties in the community,ranging from car washes to furniture stores,which are dealing with repeated issues such assmashed windows and petty theft costing them thousands of dollars.

But Eby said the dispute between police and prosecutors maybe concealing the best solutions for dealing with crime.

Treatment and housing options

Eby suggested that while some people are calling for more arrests and jail time, the bigger problem is the number of individuals with serious mental health and addiction issues who are involved in petty crime and would benefit from support.

"They need a medical response to the challenge they're facing," he said of repeat offenders in the community.

"They're in and out of jails, and they're in and out of emergency rooms regularly."

Eby said the province is focusing on building complex care sites throughout the provinceto help people, arguing it is cheaper and more effective than filling up jail cells.

KelownaMayor Colin Basransaid he is supportive of all solutions as long as they lead to lower crime rates for his citizens.

"There are certainly a lot of things that need to be done, given the complexity of dealing with the social issues we're seeing on our streets."