Violence, drug addiction focus of Grantham debate
Although violent crimes that are becoming too commonplace in St. Catharines have so far been in the downtown core, Ward 5 Grantham residents remain concerned, nonetheless.
In addition to issues directly affecting the ward such as clinker dust, and upgrades to Sunset Beach, the eight candidates hoping to represent the community after the Oct. 22 election dedicated much of their time discussing the violence and issues that have contributed to it during a debate Wednesday evening organized by the Friends of Walker’s Creek.
While candidates agreed that the recent shootings and stabbings that have plagued the city were related to issues such as drug use and homelessness, candidates had different ideas about how the issue should be resolved.
“The opioid crisis in downtown St. Catharines is real,” candidate Dennis Van Meer told the standing-room only crowd of hundreds of area residents at the Grantham Lions Club hall. “Drugs bring violence, unfortunately.”
Van Meer said establishing an overdose prevention site — often referred to as safe injection sites — is “probably the first step in getting this moving forward.”
“St. Catharines is in desperate need of a permanent shelter downtown for homelessness.”
Mark Stevens suggested adding more cameras in the downtown area as well as an increased police presence, but questioned the idea of establishing an overdose prevention site.
“While it might be a great idea to keep people safer who are doing this, is it going to invite more people to our area,” he said. “And our tax dollars, are we funding that for groups and individuals coming from all over the province and the country because we’re offering that they’re going to be here. There’s going to be more — I hate to use the words — of them. Are we going to be creating more of a problem because of that?”
Alan Ziemianin said the recent crimes have been targeted attacks, “but the opioid crisis creates the environment where that can happen.”
He suggested better lighting in the area, potentially offering incentives to property owners to install surveillance equipment, as well as an increased police presence.
“I’m all for the safe injection sites. It is a crisis and people are dying in that park downtown … I just don’t want to see our city give up on those people,” Ziemianin said. “There’s nothing that says a safe injection site is a bad thing — no matter what you’ve heard.”
Jeff Brooks said the safety of residents “needs to be top priority for city council.”
He said Niagara should have about 900 police officers and currently only has about 700.
“That’s a very big gap that needs to be filled. The more police officers we have on our streets to deal with violent crime, it’s only going to benefit our residents,” Brooks said, adding an increased police presence would also address issues like motorists speeding along Grantham’s streets.
Matthew Bastead said community outreach programs can help “break that cycle of poverty and violence.”
He also suggested addressed the issue through job creation initiatives, allowing “people to work their way from poverty up to somewhere they’d want to be.”
Rob Gill said the community needs “to look at the underlying issue” contributing to the rise in violence, “and not just be reactive and throw 100 police officers downtown.”
“That’s not going to solve anything.”
“Classifying anyone who suffers from an addiction issue as ‘them’ is unacceptable,” he added. “They’re human beings too.”
Dawn Dodge said the problem is citywide.
“We have the opioid crisis, we have homelessness, we have people that are hungry and panhandling on our streets,” she said.
Dodge said the city needs a “permanent home so people can go there and have their mental issues dealt with or their drug problems.”
“We need to educate ourselves and make people know that this is unacceptable and that we’re willing to help and have people there that can help.”
Ward 5 incumbent Bill Phillips said the violence is “manufactured by dealing drugs and it’s a gang-related issue in many situations.”
He agreed with the need for more cameras in the area, as well as police officers.
“It’ll be really expensive, but we need to do that,” Phillips said.