Public Safety Plebiscite Amendment

Thank you. I'd like to be taken to an amendment queue, please.

So clerk, please take us to the amendment queue.

I'm following the queue on my computer because I do not have access to this right now.

It's I don't think we started. Yeah, it's just.

Yeah, it's all gone.

Yeah, this one's right, I think, and then we move to the amendment queue. Councillor Maloney, please go ahead.

Thank you. I've distributed a strike and replace amendment. The City of Vancouver has tools to reduce street disorder and increase public safety in ways that improve conditions for residents, businesses and vulnerable people while supporting dignified pathways to treatment and recovery. Other jurisdictions like Victoria and New Westminster have tackled this problem and can be used as models for the city's approach. We don't need to wait for a ballot question to begin this work or advocate to senior levels of government for solutions. The City of Vancouver has had several successful pilot programs over the previous decade, including the Better Together Collective Action pilot. Vancouver has also a number of crisis response services and intervention programs that can be enhanced by investing in coordination and connection services. Crisis response community led or circle programs have already been successfully used in other jurisdictions like Victoria and New West. restorative justice pilots and programs such as the restorative city model programs 2023 Vancouver pilot in Hastings Sunrise have been adopted and seen success in Vancouver but lack of sufficient funding to implement in that with any long-term certainty housing first has been shown by ubc sfu and global research to be fundamental to the success of a four pillars approach the public health policy framework adopted by the city into um says 2001 but i think i've done a typo there to address substance use and addiction which treats addiction as a health issue rather than a crime this amendment outlines how to proceed today on building out the four pillars in a real material way in proven programs that have already worked in vancouver in direct staff to provide a plan for peer support and community intervention directing staff to provide a plan for a crisis response systems review, directing staff to provide a plan for adopting the restorative city framework, directing staff to provide a plan on how to build a true housing first framework integrated with community safety and recovery, and direct staff to engage and consult relevant organisations and agencies.

Thanks, we need a seconder for this amendment. Second by Council apply. OK, I saw the nice ones. Council of the amount of this advanced concept of another.

Thanks, Chair, and I appreciate if clerks can help me with time just in responding to the amendment. I think it's important to remind Council that at the outset of this term we supported and I think it was unanimous motion at Council to address both public health and public safety concerns and. and what it was was to build off of some existing programs but to in fact expand them and I thought it would be helpful if I elaborated on that because I think much of it is duplicated in this motion is we invested eight million dollars annually to Vancouver Coastal Health through a partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health Vancouver Police, Vancouver Fire, and that included adding psychiatric nurses to VPD to do triage calls so that when there's calls coming in and it does not warrant a police response, it warrants a health response, we have psychiatric nurses there to assist with that. We expanded CAR 8788, which has been a very successful partnership between police and Vancouver Coastal Health with mental health nurses and a number of you I think have participated in ride-alongs. We added mobile de-escalation teams which are non-police outreach and they're community-based as well as Indigenous crisis response team. I highlight these because they work together And in fact, they've been independently evaluated. And just last year, roughly 2500 people were assisted and diverted from police services to health services through this initiative. And this was a made in Vancouver approach to dealing with fundamentally a gap in service and response from the provincial government. We heard in the last election people's concerns and we came forward with a plan to respond, even though um arguably we're not responsible for health care we're not responsible for treatment and recovery but we recognize there were concerns from the public and so we partnered in a very creative manner with vancouver coastal health to provide a range of services that are holistic they're complementary to other programs they're part of the continuum but i think it's important to remind members of council that in fact we have a program in place that is underway and it's working and and so it this is duplicating not this amendment so it won't be supporting it okay so nice nice counselor curvy huh

Yeah, I'll just say briefly and I will repeat the very good statistics and information from Councillor Dominato, but I will say that this motion is I've seen it multiple times during my time on Council and it's I would characterize it has been there, done it, doing it, including things like neighborhood cleanups, investing in that, supporting restorative justice programs, exploring those funding and so on, etc. I think. If we get out of the proverbial forest for the trees, this is not about the city responding to the down end of the crisis and doing things like restorative justice. This is about fundamentally a paradigm shift and a vociferous request to the provincial government to be bolstered to shift to treatment and recovery to get people to better. That's really what it is. It's about getting the city out of triaging and it's about getting people to better. Thanks.

Okay, thanks. Councillor Clausen. Yeah, thanks very much. I just sort of go back to, first of all, much of the work that we're seeing here, as Councillor Domenato indicated, with the work that we did with Vancouver Coastal Health, the $8 million that we are funding with, providing up to 50 positions, I think 82% of had been hired or recruited by according to a report from last year that include the expansion of car 8786 the first ever indigenous crisis resource team and uh community command center liaison there are so so many other things that cities have really not done before our council implemented that and again that was a program that was designed to Vancouver coastal health at the end of the day though we are talking about giving the public a choice. And this amendment merely takes that choice away from Vancouver voters and allows them to not be a part of a discussion that has had a huge impact on all neighborhoods and families in this community. So for that reason, I will not be supported.

Thanks, Councillor Meisler.

Yeah, thanks. I'm not going to support this. Better Together neighborhood table has existed in previous years, including in Yaletown and downtown south, and I would say was a failure. I don't want to double down on that approach. Residents did not feel represented at that neighborhood table. They did not feel that the concerns were. addressed particularly around the two previous OPS sites in the neighborhood I was involved in many of those discussions with residents who were raising legitimate concerns around things like street disorder things like open drug use things like violence on the sidewalk encampments etc The neighborhood tables that I saw on that issue were not an effective avenue for residents to raise those concerns and have them addressed. So doubling down on that approach, I don't think is the right way forward. So I can't support this. What I do support is our support of CAR 87 and CAR 88. and the additional funding that council allocated to Vancouver Coastal Health to ensure that people in mental health crisis and severe addiction crisis are receiving the response that's appropriate. We've seen a lot of early success there, and that's something that I will continue to support.

Thanks, Councillor Maloney.

Thank you. We've just heard that this council is doing enough, that the city is doing enough, but we're getting mixed messages here because if we look at the wording of, the suggested wording of the public safety website that we're voting on this morning, it says, Vancouver has experienced unprecedented levels of street disorder. open air hard drug use and disruption to community safety and individual health this council has been in power for four years we are weeks out from an election and i've just heard straight faces people saying we're doing enough right um and So it sounds as though the majority on council are going to reject my amendment so that you don't support my amendment, but you do support asking a question on election day, asking two questions on election day. So I think that I would rather vote in favour of real action and do real work, which should have been done. And a lot of these items were actually... uh election commitments um in the lead up to the 2022 um election by the majority on council so to to throw them in the bin now um i'm not surprised but i think it's a real shame because i think the people of vancouver want to see real action rather than to be asked a question in 10 weeks time

OK, thanks. I put myself on the queue so just quickly. I think the motion. Oh sorry, I have to see the chair to counselor could be on place. Yeah, thanks. So the agenda on this on this table is public safety public side. I think we're talking about the public side, not about overall. drug strategy and how can we deal with this crisis in the in in city of Vancouver so I won't call this one this amendment out of order but I think it it does so and I also think that giving people some platforms so they can express their opinion and direct voice from the public safety club side I think is the way to go and really that people want to express their opinion and it's not uncommon to to prophesize uh in the during the civic election we do that almost every year so i think it's a very good uh way to get people engaged and hear their opinion listen to them directly so i will not support this uh much thanks okay i'll take the chair back from council corbin and council meisner

Yeah, I'll be quick. I just want to respond to Councillor Maloney's, I think, mischaracterization of of comments from ABC colleagues here at the council table table. I didn't hear a single one of us say that we think that we're doing enough as a council to address this issue. That's why personally, I support the plebiscite because we need to push the provincial government to do more. And I don't. nobody here thinks we're doing enough. So I take issue with that misinformation from my colleague. Thanks, Councillor Marston.

Councillor Maloney?

We're not doing enough, and that's true. We're not funding restorative justice. We've moved further away from a housing-first approach during this Council's term. For example, the calls on net new supportive housing approvals and voting down the social housing initiative. And we are deliberately and quite... openly worsening our relationships with senior levels of government who provide the funding to really tackle the problems and challenges we face as a city. So we're not talking about overall drug strategy, but I think that we should be.

Thanks, Councillor Maloney. Seeing nobody else on the queue, I'm going to call the vote for the amendment. So council please register your vote on the voting panel and we are voting on the Councillor Maloney's I think the voting panel is working now.

Voting panel working?

No, no. OK, so I'll just do a manual. OK, so I'll start with Mayor Sim. OK, Councillor Meissner, Councillor Klaassen. Opposed. Opposed. Councillor Meissner. I'm opposed. I'm also opposed. Councillor Domenado. Opposed. Councillor Ker-Piao. I'm opposed. Councillor Waugh. I'm abstained. I'm abstained. Councillor Frye.

Abstained.

Councillor Bligh? Councillor Maloney? Okay, so the motion was defeated.

Councillor Montague? For some reason, I can't turn my camera on. I guess it's part of this whole glitch. I'll try transferring to my phone and get it on, but I'd like to vote opposed.

So does Councillor Montague need to have the video on? Thank you.

And especially given the technical issue, can we? You go to school. Yes, I know.

Yes, we have. We have seen him online.

OK, that's good. Alright, so the amendment was divided with Councillor Orr, Councillor Frye and Councillor Blighth abstaining and Councillor Klasenmeister, myself, Councillor Domonado and Councillor Kerbion and also Councillor Montague in opposition. And Mearsen. And Mearsen, sorry. Yeah, with other screens, just yeah, Mearsen in opposition. Can we project that? OK, you can see that on the screen now. Everyone please check, make sure that that is correct.

Yes, it looks like right. OK, thanks everyone. OK, I'll go back to the main queue. Please take us to the main queue. We're just using the questions you have everyone there.

Councillor Maloney?