Premier Ranj Pillai told the house on the first day of the fall sitting of the Yukon Legislative Assembly that “safety units” situated in downtown Whitehorse could be in place by the end of October.
The comment came in response to a question about the Whitehorse Emergency Shelter from the Yukon NDP. The autumn session opened Oct. 4 with a deluge of questions from the opposition parties about the situation outside the shelter just days after a neighbouring award-winning local business announced it’s temporarily closing due to “ruinous conditions.”
Following the question period, the premier told reporters the “safety officers” working throughout the city’s core will be like the Bear Clan Patrol in Winnipeg.
“It’s really about having folks in the downtown area doing walkthroughs, not just around the shelter,” Pillai said.
“It’s about de-escalating situations. I mean, inevitably, they’re going to reach out to the RCMP, if the situation is really significant.”
The Winnipeg-based patrol group, which exists alongside the Winnipeg Police Service, serves the inner city in a “non-threatening, non-violent and supportive way,” according to its website. The website indicates the patrols came about in response to the “ongoing need to assume our traditional responsibility to provide security to our Aboriginal community.”
Pillai said conversations are underway between the Council of Yukon First Nations and potential contractors who have been looking at the model in Manitoba’s capital. Funding for the contractors will come from the Yukon’s Health and Social Services department.
Pillai said he needs a better sense of the contract before putting a cost on it.
The debate in the legislature is happening amid a broader longstanding conversation surrounding the shelter that has escalated since the owners of Alpine Bakery went public last week about their shutdown. Chief Supt. Scott Sheppard of the Yukon RCMP previously told the News that he is directing the police force to step up enforcement around the shelter. Whitehorse Mayor Laura Cabott has urged the Yukon government to immediately take on the issues around the shelter.
During debate, the Yukon Party pinned the problem on the Yukon government for taking over the shelter and changing it to a “low barrier approach” before passing it on to Connective, a British Columbia-based organization formerly known as the John Howard Society, as operators with the Council of Yukon First Nations as contractors.
“The results have been a disaster. Property damage, vandalism, harassment, open drug and alcohol use and general crime and illegal behavior have become the norm in the core of Whitehorse,” Official Opposition Leader Currie Dixon said ahead of asking how many more businesses need to close before the government takes the issue seriously and starts making change.
“I’m validating the fact that something has to be done,” Pillai said.
The premier indicated he has taken over the shelter file from Health and Social Services Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee.
“I think it was unfair that we put the onus just on one department. I think it has to be a multi-department approach,” he said.
“We do have to change what’s happening. The activity that has been very significant, or that has been the most disruptive, has been outside the building, and there has been a culture of gathering and partying and really inappropriate behavior. At the same time, inside the shelter, there has been good work done, and we know that from the work we’ve done, the studies we’ve done and the feedback.”
Pillai and McPhee have publicly expressed that they take the issue very seriously.
Dixon went on to criticize the government for carrying on with business as usual over the past years despite what he described as a “steady stream” of complaints levied by businesses and residents.
“Even people who need and who utilize the services of the shelter have complained that they don’t even feel safe there,” he said.
“Quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, no one feels safe around the shelter anymore.”
READ MORE: Fear, frustration mounting over alleged criminal activity outside Whitehorse shelter
Pillai provided reasoning for the current approach.
“The reason that the service model changed was because there was really negative things happening,” he said.
“They may not have been happening outside the building, but they were happening to the clients inside the building. And that might be easier for us all to deal with because we can drive by and we don’t have to deal with it. But there was bad things happening in that building to those clients from one client to another and within the staffing model. And that’s why the decision was made. That is the facts.”
Pillai gave the example of recently removing the physical barriers that were previously put up outside the shelter as an immediate change that has been made. He said McPhee directed the change prior to the bakery owners’ announcement about shutting down.
Pillai said he is aiming for a meeting next week with stakeholders like Connective, Council of Yukon First Nations, RCMP and the city.
“I think that we have to make incremental steps,” he said.
“We have to look at maybe some of those services potentially devolving to other areas. I think having the amount of things happen in that area right now is building too much activity. So, I think there’s a number of things that we have to do.”
Pillai said he has tasked public servants across the government to come back to him in two weeks with a set of options for consideration.
“I’ve also sat down with the owners of Alpine Bakery. They’ve been very clear. They are taking the next six months, and they are putting this on the government to make changes before they make a decision to reopen.”
Lane Tredger, Yukon NDP MLA for Whitehorse Centre, said the time for incremental change has passed as the situation has “reached a boiling point.”
“What’s absolutely maddening is that there have been years of meetings and reports full of recommendations to address the concerns we’re hearing,” they said.
Tredger asked when the government will publicly release a working plan with concrete actions and timelines.
Pillai restated that stakeholders need to come together first.
“But coming back with a timeline, I think, is fair and it’s accountable, and that’s something that I’ll work with our team to do.”
READ MORE: 4 shelter deaths occurred under Yukon government’s watch; 3 people died under new operators: coroner
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com