The City of Kamloops Finance Committee will consider trying to start a fund to help businesses repair vandalism.
Councillor Mike O’Reilly made the proposal, saying there’s a problem with vandalism across the city.
“From Brock, Valleyview, Sahali, downtown, it doesn’t really matter where it is. But there is a significant problem, and I’m not afraid to say that. And it’s okay to be talking that there are problems,” he said.
O’Reilly says Kamloops RCMP Supt. Syd Lecky reported a 51-per-cent increase in commercial property crimes last year, a “substantial increase” which he said “very much lines up with what we’re hearing from business owners and commercial building owners throughout the city.”
He notes helping businesses pay to do to repairs could be a stop-gap measure during the pandemic.
“We say a lot that we are all in this together. Socially, absolutely we are, how we live our lives, we are. Financially and economically, we aren’t,” O’Reilly added. “There are some businesses being hit much harder than others. Some are succeeding and doing well. But there are a lot of businesses that are bleeding and just hanging on.”
O’Reilly suggests the fund could have up to $100,000 available, with businesses able to access up to $500 per incident.
Kamloops mayor Ken Christian agrees that businesses are being vandalized more often and need help. But he noted the Community Charter might prevent the city from an idea like helping pay for those specific businesses to do repairs.
“And I also wonder where does that rub up against insurance claims that businesses would make for vandalism that occurs. Maybe there’s an opportunity for us to say okay, we’ll give a $30 reduction on business license fees, or something like that, that is across the board,” Christian noted.
Now almost a year into the pandemic and lower-level crime surging, Christian wonders if criminals feel they have something of a “free pass.”
“The charge assessment standards really negate police from taking much action against vandals,” he said. “In fact, theft under $5,000 doesn’t seem to garner much response from the [BC Prosecution Service]. Nor do crimes that would result in stays of less than 90 days. Because quite frankly they are trying to decant the prisons.”
The Finance Committee will discuss the potential business vandalism support program at its next meeting, on Feb. 24.
