Prairie Bylaw Enforcement (PBLE) has left town, and nobody seems particularly happy about it - at least that was the case at the Aug. 30 meeting of council.
"I think we've let you down," said Mayor Tim Johnston to PBLE owner Dave Prud'homme. "I think we're letting the community down. I will say that I erred on my part, we should have pressed the province more I've been very disappointed and let down by the Minister of Justice and the province of Manitoba."
Aug. 31 marked the last day of PBLE service in Thompson, ending a nearly three-year relationship between the company and the city. The contract between the two was slated to end almost seven months later, but after council reduced the PBLE budget from $456,250 to $306,250, PBLE opted not to accept the cut in return for a reduced level of service.
One long-running point of contention between the city and the province was that the Manitoba Department of Justice repeatedly refused requests from the city to allow PBLE officers to lay charges under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act (IPDA), as is the case in Winnipeg. Instead, the bylaw officers were only permitted to enforce municipal bylaws.
Johnston noted that his dealings with provincial officials indicated that the province wouldn't take an active interest in the state of downtown Thompson unless it made it into the courts.
"I'm extremely concerned with what's going to happen in the downtown tomorrow morning," said Johnston, noting that the bylaw officers' end date was common knowledge among the public.
There were plenty of positive comments about the role PBLE had played in Thompson since 2007. "I think it has made a tremendous difference," Johnston said.
"I come up here and we go through all these stats," said Prud'homme, "but you can't see what's going on behind the scenes. The guys have worked hard and there's a lot of success stories out there."
"At the end of the day, it's the stories behind the numbers you have to look at to see where we are going," agreed Coun. Oswald Sawh.
At a previous council meeting on Aug. 16, Insp. Ken Poulsen, head of the Thompson RCMP detachment, said that the RCMP has beefed up its presence in the downtown with dedicated patrols of the area, an action that was taken as far back as the Nickel Days festival. "We've looked at some peak periods over time, and we've scheduled dedicated shifts," Poulsen said.
Johnston does not seem convinced that occasional RCMP patrols will be enough to make up for the enforcement presence lost with the departure of PBLE, saying that "there are many who are more naïve than I" if they think the current RCMP municipal force can cover the loss of PBLE. Johnston also pointed out that any resources the RCMP directs at the downtown cannot be used for drugs, gangs, or domestic abuse, which have been RCMP priorities in the past. "This city cannot afford to have the RCMP dealing with behavioural issues in the downtown," Johnston said.
"Wishing something away never works; reverting to past practices that didn't work in the past seldom works," said Johnston.
Thompson's public safety committee has suggested that the city spend $250,000 per year to hire two new RCMP officers to patrol the downtown exclusively. That figure would also cover overtime costs for when the new officers would be unavailable.
Prud'homme also presented council with the final report of PBLE's activities in Thompson, looking specifically at the time period of April 1 through Aug. 19 - a timespan in which it dealt with a total of 9675 incidents - an average of over 68 incidents per day, or one incident every 21 minutes.
Of those 9675 incidents, the most common were cases of open liquor - a total of 5473 occurrences during that span, in which liquor was disposed of in 2389 incidents or 43.6 per cent - and loitering, which accounted for 3838 incidents, or 39.7 per cent.
There were also 578 incidents classified as "drunk and disorderly", 342 caused disturbances, 207 cases of littering, 160 parking incidents, 51 cases of public nudity, 24 incidents of panhandling, and two counts of smoking in a public place, both in June.
Prud'homme also noted that PBLE has been working with city officials with regards to a transition plan, telling council that on the subject of property standards responsibilities being transferred to the city, "everything's going to go very smoothly."
A total of 93 property standards notices were given out on behalf of the City of Thompson between April and August, including 37 graffiti notices - all but one of which came in April - as well as 31 notices for garbage, 23 derelict properties, and two for vehicles stored in front yards. Going back to January, there were a total of 134 property standards notices opened and closed, with garbage being the main culprit in the first part of the year.
Sawh lamented council's thinking in the past, noting that "if we felt that the initiative was important enough, we would have found those resources. My hope is that we continue to see some positive changes, but I'm not optimistic."
"I am very disappointed that we're at this stage," agreed Coun. Harold Smith. "I wish a number of things had been different."
"Did we stop every unacceptable behaviour?" asked Johnston rhetorically. "Not a chance. Will we ever? Not a chance."
