The RCMP made it clear it is determined to push back against crime and public drunkenness in the District of Port Hardy.
Staff Sgt. Kim Rutherford and Indigenous Liaison Officer Cst. Ed Harrison were invited to speak at the Port Hardy Chamber of Commerce's regular luncheon series on April 22 at the Kwa'lilas Hotel.
Rutherford, who moved to Port Hardy in September to run the RCMP detachment, spoke first to the mostly full room who had purchased tickets to attend the event, explaining her background and extensive career as an officer of the law.
She stated she grew up in Alberta where she knew "all about horses and cows and nothing about drugs and homelessness," before going on to spend 15 years as a police officer in the Lower Mainland. She transferred to Gold River in 2017 and then spent the last two years of her career in Campbell River, where she worked "a lot of the time in the downtown core."
Rutherford added she was asked to move up to Port Hardy to fill the vacant staff sergeant role because of the work she did in Gold River and the "connections that I was able to make in that small town."
She admitted the Port Haardy detachment has been "short-staffed for quite a long time, but we [can see] the lights at the end of the tunnel. We have two new people that arrived this week from Saskatchewan... and we're slated to have a full house by the end of the summer, which will be incredible."
Rutherford confirmed she is "well aware of what we're facing in the downtown core, what all of your businesses are facing day in and day out, and my team and I are looking at ways to best address that."
She noted the people who are causing issues downtown are a core group of "maybe 10, and those 10 people have been told regularly if you are down here and you're intoxicated and you're causing disorder and you're committing crime, or just generally being a pain in the neck, then you'll be arrested for either the criminal code offence you're committing, or the Liquor Control Licensing Act, and you'll spend an afternoon in our fine establishment called jail."
She added if it's an actual criminal offence, then "you'll be spending longer" amounts of time in jail, because "we're finding that small group of people are preventing the group at large from accessing the help they need."
"Community policing is the foundation of how our detachment is going to move forward," Rutherford continued. "That will include being proactive and preventative... but it also relies heavily on connecting with all of you business owners and members in our community, making observations, calling the police when there's a sign of trouble, and following through with the court process if it goes that way."
Policing is not a solo activity, said Rutherford. "It has to be a community activity. Everybody has to take responsibility and not turn the other way. We've seen violence erupt for no reason, and it is having an impact on the health of our community, the people working in it, and we need to work together. You will see a lot more people being arrested, because if I can arrest them the first instance, we're hopefully preventing further violence, we're ensuring they don't get hurt, and we're ensuring that someone's monitoring their health."
Rutherford added she feels very fortunate to work in a detachment where all of the officers "want to be here, and all of them are happy to come to work. I don't have cancer at all in my office, which is amazing."
She introduced Harrison after that, noting his role as a Indigenous liaison officer is to be "out at the schools, at community events, making sure all of our clients get to know the human behind the uniform, and he does an amazing job."
Harrison said he was born and raised in the Comox Valley and decided he was going to join the RCMP at the age of 39 after being a volunteer firefighter in Courtenay for 15 years, stating he felt he could bring "some life experience to the RCMP."
Harrison previously worked in the Sunshine Coast, Port McNeill, and Alert Bay before transferring to Port Hardy.
"I got to work with the community there (Alert Bay) and help out the detachment for six months because they were short, and that was amazing," he said. "The community was so welcoming and treated me so kindly."
That was when he received the opportunity to transfer to Port Hardy.
"The RCMP needed some help, you guys were going through a state of emergency, people in crisis," he said. "They asked me if I would come up to help, and I was hesitant because Port Hardy's a difficult community to police, and I'm gonna be honest when I say that. Compassion fatigue is real up here and it is hard work. But I came, and the agreement was I was gonna come for 12 months, but now it's been almost 14 months and I have no intentions of leaving."
He said he works mostly with the local First Nations here, where he spends "a lot of time in the schools, and I try to work real closely with the elected council, hereditary chiefs, and work on priorities that they think are important in the community."
Harrison then opened the floor up for questions from the attendees, most of whom were business owners in Port Hardy and members of the chamber (Port Hardy mayor Pat Corbett-Labatt and Coun. Janet Dorward were the only elected officials in attendance).
One person mentioned repeat offenders continuing to enter stores in the downtown core and asked what the RCMP is doing about this issue.
Rutherford said there is supportive housing currently being built and it will probably be finished by the summer. She noted the housing will provide "community space for those individuals to go spend time at instead of milling around and getting into trouble in the downtown core."
Another person asked if the people in the downtown core causing issues are locals and wondered if they are truly homeless.
"Four or five per cent of that downtown core is from out of the community," answered Rutherford. "Usually those four or five per cent show up in town, we see them, we say 'you don't belong here' and within a couple of weeks they've committed enough crime that the sheriffs take them out of town."
Rutherford added the Salvation Army in town only has 16 beds.
"Four of them are for sobriety, to get sober, and then the other 12 are for generally unhoused people for the night."
She noted in the month of March alone, the Salvation Army had to turn away 107 people from accessing services.
"Obviously housing is a huge issue, but a lot of our downtown clientele do end up in homes at night, but it's not really their homes, and they're kicked out frequently because of their behaviour... These are human beings that we care about, but we need to hold people accountable until they are able to see their value. And when we are not holding people accountable, we're telling them we don't expect better because you're not capable and you're not valuable."
Another person asked about the lack of mental health services in the community, and how this issue directly affects the RCMP's ability to do their job.
"From a mental health perspective, we don't have an open hospital," noted Rutherford, "and usually, consistent addictive behaviours directly lead to self-medication, and so those people, if they're not getting the mental health supports they need, and at some point they're being too dangerous to themselves or others, where do they go?"
She explained the community and the province should be helping out so people here can get what they need, which means everyone needs to continue advocating for "more money, more funding" from the government to invest into mental health services for the region.
The safer spaces initiative was brought up for discussion, with one person stating Stink Creek Park has become a place where if you want to go and drink in public, you can go and do it at Stink Creek Park because "police can't arrest you there."
"Yeah, I hear that all the time," said Rutherford with a nod. "Most days we start with a foot patrol [in the area], you know, mid-morning."
She stated they tell people in the park to go ahead and enjoy their day, "but no open liquor, and if you're so intoxicated you can't care for yourself or you're causing problems, then we're removing you. That kind of behaviour is unacceptable."
When it comes to arresting people, Rutherford said it isn't "a pretty thing, especially if they're resisting and not following direction... It's unfortunate, but we are getting body cams and I can hardly wait so that people can see what's happening around the streets and what's happening in cells."
Harrison jumped into the discussion at that point, circling back to the issues with the hospital.
"For me when I got here, the biggest challenge was the hospital closes at 5 p.m.," he said. "Our busy time in Port Hardy is between 4-7 p.m... We only have so many paramedics here, and I don't know what the answer is, but [we need to find] a way to get this hospital functional 24 hours out of the day so we can provide care and not tie up as many resources."
The question and answer period ended at that point, and Rutherford concluded the conversation by saying she's proud of all the work her officers have done, "and I'm really excited about our detachment's future."
