‘This is not about collecting fines,’ ABC Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim told reporters Monday. ‘This is about re-establishing social norms or social expectations in public spaces’
Article content
ABC Vancouver’s plan for cracking down on public drug use includes telling police to write tickets and confiscate substances, but not arresting the drug users or expecting them to pay any fines.
Article content
Vancouver’s reigning party unveiled part of its campaign platform on Monday, which included more details about how the party plans to proceed if voters support what ABC calls its “public safety plebiscite” for the municipal election ballot on Oct. 17.
Article content
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
ABC announced the plebiscite questions in August, but few details had been available about what would actually happen if the party were re-elected to a council majority and the public votes “yes” on the proposed measures.
Article content
Sunrise
Article content
On Monday, ABC Vancouver candidates distributed a 22-page booklet detailing the proposal. If voters support the plebiscite, Vancouver council would have a “clear mandate,” ABC said, to authorize police to write tickets for the public use of hard drugs like fentanyl and meth, and confiscate and dispose of the drugs.
Article content
ABC’s campaign literature recommends the bylaw ticket should be set at zero dollars.
Article content
“This is not about collecting fines,” Mayor Ken Sim said. “This is about re-establishing social norms or social expectations in public spaces.”
Article content
Although drug users who receive tickets will not be expected to pay monetary penalties, police will take their information and track repeat offenders, ABC’s campaign material says, “helping identify patterns of behaviour and informing decisions on whether stronger interventions under existing laws are warranted.”
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
This approach means police could confiscate hard drugs without needing to arrest the user and take them to jail for processing, which could take up most of their shift, ABC’s campaign material states. “The threat of hard drug seizures will act as a severe and tangible deterrent to those who seek to use in a public space.”
Article content
Read More
-
Vancouver election heats up with seven parties and five mayoral candidates in the mix
-
Vancouver’s ABC party calls for drug-use plebiscite on October ballot
-
Advertisement 1
Story continues below
Article content
The TEAM For A Livable Vancouver mayoral candidate, Colleen Hardwick, said when it comes to public safety, Sim is “running against his own record.”
Article content
“Ken Sim and ABC have had four years to deal with the public safety issue, but they have failed,” Hardwick said Monday in an email. “Adding an unenforceable plebiscite to the ballot is not a plan.”
Article content
TEAM’s public safety plan, released last week, also targets public drug consumption, pledging “zero tolerance for open drug use.”
Article content
The other non-binding question being put to voters next month asks whether the city should ask the province to convert parts of the old St. Paul’s Hospital property on Burrard Street into a secure facility to hold 100 or more people with severe mental-health and substance-use disorders.
