Salmon Arm is the latest B.C. municipality to potentially impose a fine on people who are asking for money on city streets.
The bylaw was passed in May, but city council this week approved a $50 fine for people found panhandling on city streets and sidewalks.
“When you hear from seniors who are afraid to go to the bank, or you hear about verbal disputes on the street about who’s allowed to sit where,” said Councillor Louise Wallace-Richmond, who put forward the motion this week. “That is not conductive to an outcome that we seek, which is no one in Salmon Arm should ever be put in a position where panhandling is their only option.”
That said, Wallace-Richmond says the fine will only be used a last resort.
“And it is certainly not the most precise tool, but we have to start the process there and it simply isn’t good enough, at least in my view to do nothing at all,” she added. “There are other options, and part of creating that door to the next, better step is to make it very clear what the expectations are.”
Only one councillor was opposed to the fine structure – Sylvia Lindgren – telling Radio NL she was also opposed to the bylaw itself.
“I just have a problem with us using bylaws to deal with what I see as an illness or a medical or a social mental health addictions type problem and I think that there are better ways for us to handle it.”
She says while yes there have been a few complaints from people, there are better ways to solve the problem, including more subsidized housing, like a recently announced project.
“We’ve been working on trying to get an outreach worker who’s sole purpose and their job would be to connect with the homeless people that are hard to find normally. We have an excellent food bank, we have a good social services department. We have additions counsellors, that sort of thing.”
Wallace-Richmond agrees, saying the city is working hard to ensure it never gets to the point where people are fined, but noted they have to do something. She believes the municipal fine will be a way to deal with the issues without having to call the RCMP.
“[If we didn’t, then] the behaviour has to escalate to the point where there are physical threats or physical intoxication and then we phone the RCMP which could lead to jail time. I mean, that is criminalizing poverty in my view,” said Wallace-Richmond. “So this fine is really meant to be a conversation, just like if your neighbour reports your for unsightly premises.”
Wallace-Richmond says the city has a no smoking bylaw in place, and despite no fines being issued, there has been a reduction in smoking in public parks. She believes this bylaw will have a similar effect on reducing panhandling.
But Lindgren doesn’t see the point of a bylaw that can’t or won’t be enforced by staff.
“I’m wondering if we don’t really a plan to use them, what was the point of the bylaw in the first place,” she said. “I guess time will tell, we’ll see what happens when the bylaw is enforced.”
Unlike Penticton’s recent bylaw which carries a $100 fine and applied to a select few downtown streets, Salmon Arm’s bylaw applies to all streets and sidewalks year-round.
As it stands, it is an offence for people to panhandle curbside, but also within 15 metres of a bank machine, in a car, or in a public plaza, among other places.
