City of Powell River will submit a $70,000 application to the BC Ministry of Public Safety to establish a situation table, to help reduce the number of people interacting with law enforcement due to unaddressed health and social issues.
At the March 21 city council meeting, council also voted to convene interested local organizations to identify a suitable lead agency and potential partners to establish and manage a situation table.
Chief administrative officer Lisa Bhopalsingh said in September 2023, city council, at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) forum, had a meeting with minister of public safety and solicitor general Mike Farnworth, advocating for more support to address social and health challenges in the community.
“One of the outcomes of this meeting was the offer from the provincial government to provide funding to City of Powell River to have something called a situation table,” said Bhopalsingh. “The table is to coordinate various health and social services in order to reduce calls to emergency services by taking what is called an upstream approach.
“What we’re asking for is support in the application, because although the funding is offered to us, part of this is also convening different agencies in town to see if a lead could be identified, who could take this money, establish the table and work with their partners.”
City councillor George Doubt said he was glad to see the application before council.
“Basically, starting in the last election, there was a recognition that there were many issues we had to deal with in the city, such as repetitive offenders of the justice system, people who were having difficulty finding treatment from mental and physical disorders, and things along those lines,” said Doubt. “When we approached minister Farnworth at the past UBCM, they quickly came up with the idea they would provide funding to try to help this out and to try to make a difference to the community. It would be great to take advantage of that and to try and get different agencies in the city that are all trying to do their best, but are not coordinating their actions, to get it all together and see if we can make a difference. I’m in favour.”
Powell River RCMP staff sergeant Rod Wiebe said he couldn’t say no to the prospect of a situation table. He said the literature on situation tables indicates the majority of referrals come from police and the most recent statistic from the office of crime reduction and gang outreach, which sponsors these programs, indicates that 31 per cent of the cases are transferred from police to other agencies. He said the situation table would reduce the police’s output in this area, where they shouldn’t be anyway.
“I will commit our community policing resource to help get this off the ground until we can turn this over to an appropriate agency in town,” said Wiebe.
Councillor Rob Southcott said he hoped establishment of a situation table would help with community concerns expressed by ratepayers organizations for better understanding of what is going on with particularly challenging problems in the community that various organizations, including the RCMP, are dealing with.
Councillor Earl Almeida asked if there would be any additional costs over and above the $70,000.
“Is $70,000 enough to run such a program,” asked Almeida.
Bhopalsingh said the concern is always how something like this is sustained. She said the initial setup is to provide support to establish the table. Once set up it is hoped each organization takes on some of the administrative burden, coordinating meetings and making sure data is stored securely, she added.
“My hope is each of the partner agencies all have a stake because it’s their clients that they are supporting,” said Bhopalsingh. “We [the city] aren’t service providers but we are willing to help establish it so the service providers could then coordinate themselves.”
According to a staff report, a situation table helps frontline staff from the public safety, health and social service sectors to identify vulnerable people and collaboratively and rapidly connect them to services before they experience a negative or traumatic event. The report stated that a situation table empowers agencies to reduce a broad range of risks that can impact a person’s well-being and safety.
Council unanimously carried a motion to apply for funding and to convene local organizations to participate.
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