The group Save Our Streets got an audience with the Premier late last week.
Jess Ketchum, a co-founder of SOS, says they were quite impressed as it wasn’t just with David Eby.
“Initially the Premier contacted us to have a meeting, but the meeting that we had was not only with the Premier but it was with three cabinet ministers plus the most senior civil servant in the province and a number of other senior officials. So we were actually meeting with a core group within government responsible for the identification, design, implementation of solutions to some of these problems.”
Ketchum says he can’t get into specific details but they talked about a variety of issues.
“Addictions and mental health, housing, judicial reform, I think that pretty well covers the waterfront for us. Policing, and timelines, we spoke about there being an urgency to this.”
On the judicial reform front, Ketchum says they did talk about jurisdiction.
“The province and the feds share some responsibilities there, so what we would like to see is for SOS and others to work with the province in dealing with the federal government on the aspects of the judicial system that is there responsibility, so we can rid of the revolving door that is the justice system.”
He feels SOS has the attention of the Premier, and that the government knows that it is in a hole on this particular issue.
“That public sentiment is now to the point where a great number of people within the province are afraid of their own safety, their families, their employees, and that they want to see something done about it and the government is going to have to make significant changes to make that happen, so I am more optimistic today than I was before the meeting.”
Ketchum says Eby talked about collaboration moving forward, not just with his group but with others as well.
He says it was a very good first effort and he looks forward to the follow up.
Save Our Streets (SOS) is a non-partisan registered society consisting of 120 community and business organizations from throughout the province that is concerned about the level of crime, violence and public disorder being experienced in B.C.
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