Correspondence: Email regarding Camping in parks
An email from a resident and police officer expressing concerns about transient camping in local parks and requesting a bylaw to address the issue.
FW: Camping in parks
From: Mayor And Council Email mayorandcouncil@viewroyal.ca
Date: June 15, 2017 at 12:09:55 PM PDT
To: Bylaw Compliance bylawcompliance@viewroyal.ca, "Larry Chomyn (larry.chomyn@rcmp-grc.gc.ca)" larry.chomyn@rcmp-grc.gc.ca, Aaron Weisgerber AWeisgerber@viewroyal.ca, David Screech MayorScreech@viewroyal.ca, Heidi Rast HRast@viewroyal.ca, John Rogers JRogers@viewroyal.ca, Ron Mattson RMattson@viewroyal.ca
Subject: FW: Camping in parks
From:
Sent: June-14-17 8:57 PM
To: Mayor And Council Email
Subject: Camping in parks
Good evening,
My name is . I live at . Last night a transient male was sleeping in our park, and was argumentative with police when they attempted to deal with him this morning.
This is unacceptable.
Our community is full of children. This is a park for everyone in our community to enjoy safely. The fact that there is no by law in place to clearly protect this park and the safety of our children is also unacceptable.
I know that our mayor is supportive of the Choices facility in our community. Perhaps in light of encouraging the homeless to relocate here we should develop clear parameters for conduct within the municipality. This is a problem that is only going to increase. I am a police officer in and I can tell you even there we have noticed a dramatic increase in the homeless transient variety within our parks and streets. This has led the town there to develop by laws. It is time for View Royal to do the same.
There is a rising drug opioid crisis. While I fully support treatment and assistance facilities it is short sighted and naive to believe that everyone is going to avail themselves of these opportunities. Society has a duty to assist the less fortunate and those at risk. It also has a duty to protect those who are NOT. Our children and residents of View Royal deserve to enjoy our communities without fear of needles, fentanyl contamination and aggressive homeless sleeping in our parks. There are multiple shelters with beds available. If people are unwilling to abide by the rules requires to access those beds they must be made aware that our community parks are NOT a viable option for them.
In order for our RCMP to properly keep our communities safe in the upcoming warm weather, I ask that council provide them with the appropriate tools to do so.