Sechelt council has voted to continue the Business Watch that was started as an emergency measure at the height of the COVID shutdown that led to most downtown businesses closing their doors.
Until recently, the costs had been covered through the province’s emergency program.
Mayor Darnelda Siegers said the program has been a success and asked council on June 17 to approve using $9,525 from the district’s public safety reserve to continue the program until Nov. 1 and authorize using district staff to oversee the program.
It’s also expected that Business Watch will be renamed Community Watch to reflect the fact volunteers are also active in areas other than the downtown core.
“Business owners and residents have indicated that they feel much safer knowing that the watch is taking place,” Siegers said in a written report for council.
“The RCMP indicated that there is no way to determine how much crime is being deterred due to the regular patrols of the watch and that the cost of the program is minimal compared to the damage and impacts it potentially deters.”
She also said continuing the program could help with issues encountered when Sechelt started to experience a sharp spike in its homeless population last year.
“I don't know what that’s going to look like this year. Last year it kind of caught us off guard and we were reacting to a lot of the situations that we encountered,” she said. “We’re also looking at having this in place to deal with that this season. It may arise again – we don't know.”
Coun. Alton Toth, a downtown business owner, said he was opposed to extending the program as a stand-alone and suggested it would be better suited as an RCMP program if it was going to continue.
“To extend this program until November is just going to probably result in another extension or renewing it next year or what have you,” Toth said. “And soon enough we’ve picked up another service that’s been downloaded on us by higher jurisdictions. We pay for RCMP here, we pay a lot for RCMP here. There was discussion at one point about trying to restart the citizens policing initiatives, through the RCMP. I think that this is something that’s better suited within the RCMP.”
Coun. Brenda Rowe took the opposite view and said business owners she’s spoken to have really appreciated it and volunteers enjoy being a part of it.
“I think the RCMP can use all eyes and ears that can be available for them, and I think this is really good value,” she said. “Nov. 1 is actually a pretty telling date because my prediction is we’ll be into a second wave by then, and we won’t have to restart this, it’ll already be carrying on and be building volunteers and such.”
In the final vote, Toth and Coun. Janice Kuester were opposed, but the balance of council was in favour.
