The Ben Mulroney Show - Nanaimo has a drug problem so they’re building a fence

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

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stop you know how fast you were going I'm gonna have to write you a ticket to my new movie the naked gun Liam Nees. Buy your tickets now and get a free chili dog. Chili dog not included. The Naked Gun tickets on sale now August 1st. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show and I'm very pleased to be joined by the Mayor of Kelowna, British Columbia, Leonard Krogh. Oh, what did I say? Kelowna. Why did I say Kelowna? Nanaimo.

I don't know why I said Kelowna. I had Kelowna on the brain. Nanaimo, British Columbia, the home of the, what, the bathtub races, is that right, Mr. Mayor? Bath tub races and the best Nanaimo bar in the world. Yeah, correct, on both fronts. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Ben Mulroney Show.

Delighted to be here. So the reason you've joined us today is there's a local story that is making hay around the country. And I sort of gave the lay of the land before the break, but why don't you tell us from your vantage point what the story is. An overdose prevention site was erected next to City Hall or installed in December of 2022, and since, we have seen an awful lot of activity, including congregations of 20 or 30-plus individuals during early morning hours, drug trafficking,

open substance use, vandalism, damage to HVAC systems, our fencing and landscaping, frequent hit and run accidents with vehicular damage, fire hazards, including unauthorized fires like set in the doorway to the City Hall, graffiti, litter, human waste, etc. So staff have presented a report to council that will be discussed by council. It is a troubling time but the issues that exist next to City Hall with the overdose prevention site are issues that you well know and we all know exist across this country. It's funny you should mention Kelowna. Kelowna faces

the same issues. Victoria, Vancouver, Prince George, you name it. We're all in the same boat dealing with the street disorder and the tide of human misery that characterizes our downtowns. So the solution that has been brought to bear on this problem is a fence, a wrought iron fence, what, 1.8 meters tall or something like that, clear around City Hall. And look, no, not around City Hall. No, no, around the parking lots in order to protect staff, vehicles, etc. Which will match, by the way, the fence that Island Health and Canadian Mental Health Association erected around the overdose prevention site.

So there will be some who will say, OK, if this problem started with the overdose prevention center, why not just move the overdose prevention center? Firstly, we don't control it. We didn't give permission for it. We didn't give permission for it. We don't run or operate it. It is Island Health, the province of British Columbia, the Ministry of Health, if you will,

and the Canadian Mental Health Association under contract. And moving it is not going to be, it'll be a solution for the immediate area, but it's not the solutions that are needed that I've talked about repeatedly to deal with our mental health addictions trauma and brain injury crisis That exists as I say across the country This is not a happy thing to discuss and it is not going to solve the problem

Except in so far as we're required under work safe BC regulations to ensure a safe workplace and frankly It's going to be discussed but there is no guarantee that it's going to be approved. There may be alternate methods to protect our staff that will satisfy work safe regulations and frankly keep our employees and people who visit City Hall feeling safe and secure. Mr. Mayor, I have to believe that this, the problems, the knock on problems of this overdose prevention

site, they didn't happen overnight. This has been a slow, steady burn to get you to this point. Were there any conversations between City Hall and the provincial health body that organizes these? We have asked for various things over time. There is only so much they can do. The simple reality is that overdose prevention sites have to be managed very carefully

and they are magnets for drug dealers. We have seen open drug dealing. That is the nature of the beast. If you're selling a product and you can go to an immediately available clientele, that's where you go, as opposed to going door to door, so to speak. No, and I understand that, but when you listed off all of the sort of negative effects that your colleagues deal with because of this, the first thing that popped into my mind is how many of these exist in your city? How many overdose prevention centers do you have in the city?

We have one overdose prevention site, unlike the city of Vancouver, which has several. And as we know, the downtown east side, which is a well-known phrase, has been in place for many, many years. And frankly, we haven't seen an improvement in that area of Vancouver. And Vancouver as a city has tried to respond to this. But at the end of the day, the ultimate solutions for all of this relate to the provincial and to a lesser extent, the federal governments. And we have all been arguing and advocating for those solutions. They are expensive.

I've said over and over again, governments have to acknowledge the seriousness of the problem because it is the topic on everyone's lips. You've got to announce the money for the bricks and mortar because we don't have the facilities or the housing, whatever is necessary. Announce the money for the universities and colleges for the training of people to work with those suffering from mental health addictions, trauma, brain injury, etc. A much more robust system across the board because right now we're all spending money. And when I say we, I mean as private citizens every time we pay something extra to London Drugs because they are trying to cover their losses through theft and vandalism. We're paying it in taxes, we're paying it in extra policing, we're paying it in

paramedics and firefighters and everybody else. And well, this is a prime example, this story, this story is a big deal. $412,000 for offence, it's attracted a lot of attention. Yeah. All it does is remind us. It's the problem Yeah, well four hundred and twelve thousand dollars. I mean I have to assume that's a that's I mean That's a lot of money for anybody and you know, Nanaimo is not the biggest city. So four hundred twelve thousand dollars I'm sure that was that was earmarked for something else Look that that that's a painful consideration

But I can tell you the the good news on the other side of this is we're still one of the five fastest growing regions in the country and people want to live here. But to spend 412,000 potentially, and it's only a potential, on a fence which is not going to solve the problem, which is not going to improve the lives, if you will, of those who are suffering. It is merely to protect staff and keep people and property safe. Just doesn't make a lot of sense. Not after years and years of our national experience. We've got 30, 40 years of failed social and health policy. Municipalities are dealing with the consequences. We have neither the resources, the legal responsibility, or the jurisdiction to fix these issues.

There's this consensus in Canada that as we watch crime on the streets of our cities accelerate in pace and in terms of violence as well, that nothing is going to change in Ottawa until this impacts the people who are making the laws And so when we heard this story, that's what I thought. I thought oh my goodness here Here are some politicians who see what people in neighborhoods have been experiencing with at least in cities like Toronto where In Toronto, you have the the safe injection site was put right next to a school or right next to a playground.

It's like, oh, finally some politicians are gonna get it. Have you had any conversations with your colleagues about, and have any of them sort of looked at this and said, and now I get it, I get why people don't want this anywhere near where they live. Look, I mean, these conversations occur all the time amongst municipal politicians. We advocate with the provincial government, but health authorities, health officials will say, look,

overdose prevention sites save lives. The location of them is always problematic, but we're not diminishing the number of people who are falling into deep addiction or suffering from untreated mental health issues, or all of the things that flow from that kind of trauma with fencing, with the overdose prevention sites themselves. We need supportive housing and we need, and I've advocated for five and a half years for this, not always to popular acclaim, I might add, the need for secure involuntary care for a portion of the population that are on the streets for whom the only real prospect is death. And it is occurring and we know that across the country, we know what the numbers are, people who are no longer capable of caring for themselves or, frankly, care about others particularly either. Yeah, well I was a big proponent of British Columbia doing sort of doing their own version

of the Portugal model, but they failed in what you just described, having that extra, having had that new place to divert drug addicts into mental health facilities. And without that, you have chaos. And yes, well, I would dispute it saving lives. I would say it postpones death. And that's two different things

because it's about quality of life as well. Mr. Mayor, thank you very much for joining us. I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer and keep us posted on what happens with the fence. Appreciate this very much. All right, take care, sir. The 2025 Nissan Sentra isn't just another compact car. Its Consumer Reports top pick in its class.

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