Victoria unveils new community safety plan

The comprehensive plan to address multiple safety and community issues in downtown Victoria—including housing concerns, healthcare for vulnerable people, and downtown beautification—will be considered by city council on Thursday.

It includes 95 recommendations for the city, province, and federal government to address social disorder and the decline in the number of people visiting downtown.

“We know that cities across the country are struggling with a variety of challenges, including the safety and well-being of all their residents,” said Mayor Marianne Alto. "Victoria is going to lead with a solution-focused plan that will encompass an intentional, balanced, practical re-imagination of community safety and well-being."

The plan was created with the input of more than 2K participants, who responded to two surveys and took part in 20 in-person sessions. A panel of 11 community leaders selected by Alto—including VicPD Chief Del Manak, Our Place Society CEO Julian Daly, Canadian Mental Health Association BC Division CEO Jonny Morris, and Alto herself—oversaw the project and made recommendations based on their areas of expertise.

The recommendations have been divided into different timelines, with short-term actions planned for this year. Medium-term actions would be implemented in 2026 or 2027, and long-term actions would arrive between 2028 and 2030.

Items for immediate implementation will fall under the city’s current 2025 budget. Should it be approved by the council this week, staff would determine financing for the rest of the year.

Items for immediate implementation will fall under the city’s current 2025 budget. Should it be approved by the council this week, staff would determine financing for the rest of the year.

Public safety downtown is an ongoing problem

The plan was released days after a damning report from the Downtown Victoria Business Association (DVBA) that warned multiple businesses could close if safety issues in the area aren’t addressed. The DVBA reported that 39% of downtown businesses saw a decline in revenue. Almost half—48%—of downtown business owners said they would consider shuttering if their lease were up in the next year.

Public safety has been flagged as a top concern by residents and businesses for years now—crisis response teams and housing initiatives were a key part of Alto’s platform while running for mayor in 2022.

Last week, Alto hinted that more “interventionist moves” would be coming to address disorder and homelessness on Pandora. It appears that these interventions would not be immediately implemented, but in the medium to long term would include an expansion of the program to relocate those tenting in parks and continued wrap-around support for hospitalized mental-health patients who need to transition to supportive housing.

Developing “upstream interventions”—addressing the root causes of crime—are another key focus

“Throughout the dialogues, among all participants and at various tables in the community, a recurring theme emerged: the city should make some 'big, bold moves,’ and advocate to others for equally bold actions,” the report reads.

“Ultimately, while many of the issues that contribute to the community’s concerns fall outside the role of local government, changing the way people experience Victoria, whether it is through housing, healthcare, policing or otherwise, is directly within the mandate of local government, which is best positioned to take action quickly, and bring people to the table.”

Recommendations for the city and VicPD

There are eight key areas of focus for all recommendations:

• Housing (24 recommendations)
• Health care (19 recommendations)
• Service delivery (12 recommendations)
• Downtown (eight recommendations)
• Residents (eight recommendations)
• Commerce (five recommendations)
• Policing and justice (15 recommendations)
• City’s community safety and well-being services (four recommendations)

One of the 15 policing recommendations is the call for more police foot and bike patrols downtown (this was also recommended by DVBA). The plan also suggests late-night, community-led support foot teams to help those in need.

Beautifying and cleaning downtown will also be a priority. Alto is calling for more funding for increased garbage collection, street cleaning, and gardening projects. It would also allocate more funding to the DVBA for graffiti removal and repairs.

Recommendations for BC

For matters of health care and housing, the city is looking for more provincial support. Alto’s plan would call on the province to adequately fund municipalities to address homelessness, given the expectation that cities must handle this issue directly. It would also ask the province to make changes to BC Housing’s operations and reform the supportive housing system.

For health care, the plan recommends the province scrap the “outdated” Mental Health Act and replace it with a Youth Mental Health Act, which would minimize police involvement and treat addiction as a mental health issue.

The plan also calls on the province to work with Island Health to create “stabilization services,” which would provide continued care and prevent hospitalized patients from being discharged into homelessness. A 2022 report from Capital Daily found that the Royal Jubilee Hospital was dumping vulnerable patients—including those hooked up to IVs—at bus stops without continued support. The hospital was criticized for the practice again last year.

To alleviate the burden on all police forces in BC, Alto’s plan recommends that the province implement community-led crisis teams, to be available 24/7 in municipalities with 50K residents or more.

Recommendations for Canada

The plan asks the federal government to create laws that divert accused people with severe mental-health concerns from the criminal system, instead moving them into a forensic psychiatric system (the plan compares this to the UK’s “restricted patient” law).

The feds are also being asked to create a national response scheme to homelessness and encampments, and for changes to bail policies for repeat offenders.

Read all 95 recommendations in the report here.