Survey finds crime concerns weighing on B.C. businesses and employees

A new Business Improvement Areas of B.C. survey reports growing concern that crime is affecting employees, customers and commercial districts across British Columbia. BIABC represents most of the province’s 80 business improvement districts and more than 55,000 small businesses.

The survey of 100 businesses in communities across B.C. found public-safety concerns regardless of location. Respondents identified worsening street disorder, repeat offending and crime as significant day-to-day operational challenges. Sixty-five per cent said public safety and street disorder were significant concerns, 63 per cent said operating conditions had worsened over the past year, and 68 per cent were worried about crime’s effects on employees. Half said safety concerns were making it harder to recruit and retain staff.

Eighty-nine per cent of respondents said governments were not doing enough on repeat offending, retail crime and public safety. Open drug use, street disorder, aggressive behaviour, vandalism and shoplifting were among the concerns most often cited. Business owners said employees regularly deal with harassment, break-ins, graffiti, discarded drug paraphernalia and difficult interactions with customers concerned about safety.

BIABC president Jeremy Heighton said the survey’s message was unmistakable despite its modest size: business owners say crime, vandalism and street disorder are harming their operations and employees’ well-being. He said workers should not have to begin or end shifts wondering whether they will encounter aggressive behaviour, open drug use, vandalism or another break-in.

The organization also pointed to what respondents described as a disconnect between businesses’ safety spending and government policies that raise those costs. Beginning Oct. 1, B.C. will extend the Provincial Sales Tax to private security services used by businesses across the province. Heighton said businesses have invested in security patrols, alarm monitoring, cameras and other protections, but will soon have to pay PST on many of those services. Ninety per cent of respondents supported BIABC’s call to pause the expansion of PST to professional services such as private security.

Heighton said public safety is no longer only a policing issue, but also an economic, workforce and community issue, and argued governments should ask why businesses have had to assume so much responsibility for protecting themselves.