Terrace Social Issues, Crime among themes for Terrace delegation and MLA Ellis Ross at Legislature

Mayor Carol Leclerc led a delegation from
Terrace to Victoria to raise community
concerns on crime and social issues
(from MLA Ross FB page)

Skeena MLA Ellis Ross provided some formal introductions for a delegation from Terrace on Wednesday in the BC Legislature, speaking at the start of the Wednesday session to introduce Terrace Mayor Carol Leclerc and Councillor Sean Bujtas to the Assembly.

The MLA making note of their time in the provincial capital to seek the help of the Provincial Government on a pair of issues of concern for the Northwest's largest community.

The municipal delegation has been in Victoria this week to speak to the concerns   and seek the assistance of the NDP government towards social issues and an increasingly worrisome crime situation in the Skeena Valley City.

Those two topics made for a Legislature presentation from the MLA Ross later in the afternoon on Wednesday as he outlined the concerns of his constituents for Attorney General David Eby.

"Talking about the law being enforced, it's quite timely, quite relevant, because the people of Terrace are worried — so much so that the mayor and council have flown down here to be with us today to meet with government over the level of violence in town that's not only affecting Terrace but the constituents of Skeena, because Terrace is a hub of our region. 

Council has also dropped their resolution that reads: "In Terrace, as well as other communities across the province, individuals are often arrested for crimes like theft and property damage, but the Crown does not lay charges, citing it is not in the public interest to prosecute. Offenders of these crimes repeat their actions, and businesses, workers and the public are victimized as a result."

The council, the Terrace community, the residents of Skeena, the residents of B.C., everyone wants to know why it's not in the public interest to charge these repeat offenders. 

So, the question is simple. To the minister, why not?"

Towards a reply, Attorney General Eby, noted that he had asked Regional Crown Counsel For Stevens to meet with the mayor to review the statitsics and offer reassurance  to the community. He also outlined some of the statistics from the Terrace Crown Counsel office when it comes to situation  in the region.

"I'm happy to read into the record some of this. But suffice it to say that the vast majority of charge assessments are completed within 30 days. On reports to Crown counsel received by Crown counsel over the last two years, 1,716 were received from police; 1,257 were approved to court. 

Only 339 of those were no-charge decisions. The rest were either alternative measures, returned to police for more investigation or are currently in progress."

The reply was not one that eased the concerns for the Skeena MLA who observed how the problem seems to be one of a provincial government that doesn't see a problem.

"That answer that was just given by the Attorney General doesn't give any comfort to the people in Terrace or in our communities across B.C. who are facing this violence, every day, who are being attacked. 

I have a letter from the chief councillor at Kitsumkalum saying that he is concerned about his community becoming a lawless land and that it's unsafe to go downtown at night, especially for women. 

The Terrace Downtown Improvement Area Society is also concerned. "Why are there no consequences of substance for people who attack businesses? The answer is that the Crown counsel will not support the RCMP with charges." 

Our communities are doing their part to assist those who are struggling with mental health, addiction and homelessness. But my constituents, and dare I say the people of British Columbia, need to know that the government is going to do their part too."

The Attorney General responded by way of noting that some of the issues could be related to Federal crimes and Supreme Court Decisions of the past, as well he observed as to the need to address homelessness in the community which he admitted still required some work.

I'm not saying there's not an issue, potentially, with violence in the streets of Terrace. I'm not saying that at all. 

What I'm saying that when those charges…. When those investigations are completed by police, they're brought to Crown counsel, they're being approved, and they're going to court. There may be issues with the criminal law being applied by the court. 

As I say, that's federal jurisdiction. That's an important issue. Let's talk about that with the federal government. But to blame Crown counsel for the state of the federal law and Supreme Court of Canada decisions — that's a different story. 

We're also working on mental health and addiction issues that are often conflated with these problems. With our complex care housing, with supportive housing, in fact, I'm happy to say we've actually reduced the number of people who are street homeless in Terrace. 

The last count was 96; the current count was 74. So we're seeing progress on these kinds of issues in the community. We've got more work to do. I'm happy to work with the member and the mayor on that.

You can review the back and forth of the debate in the Legislature from the Hansard minutes here starting at 3:25 PM

The House video of the exchange can be reviewed as well from the MLAs social media feed.

More notes from the Legislature can be reviewed from our archive page here.

A wider overview of the concerns from Terrace can be explored through our Terrace archive page here.