Drug use, vagrancy, biohazard cleanups and property crime in the city core have forced a shift in focus for the Downtown Prince George Business Improvement Association.
That sudden about-face has taken some of the fun out of the work DTPG does to make Prince George a better place to be, says its president.
“The services we offer have changed over the last few years into things more reactive to deal with negative issues, as opposed to be more proactively creating positive experiences,” said Eoin Foley, owner of Nancy O’s, Birch and Boar and Betula Burning restaurants.
“We used to focus more on beautification, events, artwork, things like that, that are creating a more pleasant environment downtown to live and work and do business. We still do some of those things (Summerfest, Winterfest, Fallfest, Plaid Friday) but it’s not the primary focus anymore. Now we have to so many reactionary things, cleaning up, like the enormous amount our Clean Team did, that drains a lot of our resources.”
In a May 8 meeting at city hall, Foley urged city council and staff to continue working with all levels of government, social agencies and the RCMP to try to address the systemic issues such as affordable housing, poverty, drug use, mental health and crime that led to disorder on the streets of downtown.
“There’s only so much we can do locally but we can do a lot more locally than we have been,” said Foley. “I know there are some things in the works with housing, whether it’s temporary or permanent.
“We have to recognize all the efforts we’ve been doing locally, collectively, as important as they’ve been, it’s still always falling short. Everything that we’re doing – (city council), us, RCMP, every organization, health authorities, we are continuously falling short and continuously going into a deeper hole.”
The budget for events and promotions dropped to 11 per cent of DTPG's total in 2023, from 27 per cent in 2019. In the same four-year period, the group had to increase funding for its clean and safe programs. That spiked from eight per cent of the budget in 2019 to 32 per cent in 2023.
DTPG secures grants and partners with the City of Prince George, PG Brain Injured Group, Drug Awareness Recovery Team (DART), Groundworks PG and ACME Janitor Services to keep the downtown area free from litter, biohazards, needles and graffiti. The cost of funding those cleanup operations jumped from $43,210 in 2018 to $186,230 in 2023 – nearly one-third of the entire budget.
Last year they rid city streets and alleyways and entranceways of 8,383 discarded needles, cleaned up 4,743 sites polluted with biohazards (human waste), and picked up 5,140 bags of garbage, 112 shopping carts and 162 wood pallets.
“We never really thought of keeping track of how many needles and biohazards there were in past years but it’s just become so amazing on the amount that we do as an organization with other organizations,” said DTPG chief executive officer Colleen Van Mook. “It does make us wonder what would happen if these great groups were not part of our partnership.”
On its website, DTPG provides its members a When To Call guide so they know what situations require the RCMP (emergency or non-emergency), Prince George Fire Rescue, RCMP Car 60 (for mental health intervention), city bylaw enforcement, BC Conservation officers, Northern BC Crime Stoppers, Northern Health needle disposal, outreach worker assistance and biohazard removal services.
Since personal use of hard drugs was decriminalized by the provincial government on Jan. 31, 2023 in a three-year pilot project to determine if that reduces the number of toxic drug deaths, downtown business owners have seen a marked rise in the number of people using drugs in storefronts and in entranceways to stores and restaurants.
On May 7, the province backtracked on its legal exemption from the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to once again make it illegal to use or possess illicit drugs in public spaces, such as hospitals, businesses, transit buses and parks. It’s still too early to determine if that’s had any effect on improving the downtown business environment.
“A lot of the issues that we’ve been facing in the last year and a half since the decriminalization of that open drug use happened is it’s not necessarily needles," said Foley. "There’s a lot more smoking of meth and crack in common spaces where you should be able to walk freely and not have to deal with that as you walk along.
“The only real enforcement ability that the city, bylaws, or RCMP has had for the last year and a half is the rule about smoking within six metres of a doorway. Now, with that specific rule change it gives our officers more of an ability to free up our corridors for our customers and staff to come and go freely.”
DTPG treasurer Derek Dougherty works downtown as an accountant at MNP and on any given morning, while walking a few blocks from where he parks his car, he encounters at least a half-dozen people using drugs on the street. He knows that almost everyday occurrence of seeing people smoking crack in plain sight scares away visitors and hurts downtown businesses.
“That shouldn’t happen, and I get that it’s an addiction,” Dougherty said. “In Oregon, they’re recriminalizing (hard drugs) now and they’re talking about offering you either one year in jail or treatment.”
DTPG formed as a non-profit society in 1999 and on June 10 it will celebrate its 25th year of operation.
The group represents 242 properties worth an estimated $327 million operating within a 41-block area of the downtown core. That includes a public swimming pool, arena, art gallery and library, 35 restaurants, 70 retail shops and five major hotels.
“It’s kind of like we’re running a mall here.” said real estate owner Kirk Gable, a founding DTPG director. “The mom-and-pop businesses are local entrepreneurs invested in each of those little pieces, but the mall owner is the city of Prince George.
“They’re running the transportation, the parking and the washrooms and other ancillary services you would get if you went to Pine Centre. Sometimes the relationship between the tenant and the mall owner is a bit dysfunctional.”
In 2018, city council approved a tax levy bylaw that allows the organization to draw operating funds from downtown businesses designated C1 commercial properties. The current seven-year bylaw will expire on March 31, 2025.
A public notice is required to renew the tax levy bylaw and each individual property owner will be contacted by mail in October and will have 30 days to petition against the bylaw. The results of the petition will be presented to council in December. If that is insufficient to prevent the establishment of a business improvement association (at least 50 per cent would have vote against it) council will be asked to renew the bylaw, which would be required at the end of March 2025 for DTPG to continue its community charter functions.
The tax levy amounts to one per cent of each businesses’ assessed value and it’s capped at $12,500. The levy brings in about $350,000 annually and DTPG accesses grants to leverage its budget to about $600,000.
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