Tim Kucharuk is sick and tired of the flagrant use of alcohol and drugs he sees downtown, and he wants Whitehorse city council do something about it.
At Monday night’s council meeting, he suggested that Whitehorse take a page from his previous home town, Hinton, Alberta, and pay for a additional RCMP officer to patrol the downtown.
“It’s going to get worse,” said Kucharuk.
It’s already so bad that he worries for his wife’s safety. She manages the Yukon Theatre and often works late.
It’s always been bad, but two weeks ago it got worse.
Not only was the theatre broken into, but on Monday night there was a brawl involving at least 15 people that spilled out into the street, said Kucharuk.
“It took RCMP over half an hour to respond” but by that point the crowd had broken up and left, he said.
The next night two other “intoxicated men” got into a row in front of the theatre.
“(My wife) had to pretty much freak out on them in order to for them to leave,” said Kucharuk. “But before they did they called her a few choice words which upset my wife greatly.”
People drink and do drugs out in the open just across the street from the theatre in LePage Park, he said.
“The last time I checked, the open use of drugs and alcohol on public property was a crime and those that are doing this type of activity out in the open should not be allowed to get away with it.”
Those people often migrate across the street to the theatre where Kucharuk’s wife is forced to deal with them, he said.
“In one case she had to kick out a man who smashed an empty twenty-sixer on the concrete floor of the auditorium during the kids movie that was playing.” With police resources stretched thin, Kucharuk said the city or the business community should look at ways of helping solve this dilemma.
“I know this isn’t a problem that’s going away tomorrow,” he said. “But I hope that all of us will try to come up with some solutions so that people like my wife don’t have to be fearful of living life in beautiful Whitehorse.”