Vancouver mayoral candidates outline differing public safety plans

Vancouver mayoral candidates say they would address public safety in different ways. One of two plebiscite questions in the upcoming municipal election asks whether the city should formally request that the province use part of the old St. Paul’s Hospital for involuntary care beds. Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC Party say the question is part of their public safety plan. The new St. Paul’s Hospital is set to open in 2027, leaving the future of the old building undecided.

Candidate Kareem Allam told Global News that turning part of a hospital into an involuntary care facility would essentially mean building a prison downtown. “It is prison, let me be clear,” he said. “Vancouver needs treatment, not a prison on Burrard Street.” Sim’s plan also includes requiring drug consumption sites to be away from schools and parks, and directing police to crack down on drug use in public spaces.

Green Party candidate Pete Fry wants a new outreach team for addiction and mental health calls, made up of people who are neither police nor medical staff. He described low-acuity, peer-led intervention teams that could respond when people with nowhere else to go disrupt a shop or sleep and camp outside one, then offer diversion and direct them to better places.

TEAM candidate Colleen Hardwick said the focus should be enforcement and recovery. She wants block watches brought back in a meaningful way and said recovery offers hope, while “we’ve put all our eggs in the harm-reduction basket.” Vote Vancouver candidate Rebecca Bligh said she would advocate to the province if elected mayor. She said Vancouver’s health-care system is short of psychiatric beds and needs a comprehensive response to repeat offenders.

B.C.’s municipal election is on Saturday, Oct. 17.