B.C. businesses are carrying more than their fair share of weight for the government’s lack of programming to prevent social disorder. That’s according to Jeremy Heighton, President of the Business Improvement Areas of British Columbia (BIABC).
The claim comes out of the BIABC’s survey of business owners across the province who say that they are increasingly worried about the safety and security of their staff.
“What we’re seeing is a perpetuation of criminality and social disruption types of issues on our corridors and in our main commercial areas,” Heighton told 1130 NewsRadio.
Two-thirds of businesses represented in the survey said street disorder has increased in the last year. This has resulted in 75 per cent of businesses reporting more fear for their staff and 50 per cent seeing impacts on their customers. Just over 60 per cent of businesses also say they are spending more on repairs due to crime and vandalism.
“I had a meeting…with our city council and a number of our business owners, one of which told us they lose $1,000 a day to what police would call ‘survival shoplifting’: candy bars, juices, milk, those kinds of things,” Heighton said.
He says what is happening is that businesses are being “hyper affected” by the lack social supports for things like mental health, housing and criminal justice reform.
“There’s a real need in B.C. to really look at what these numbers are saying. And they’re saying business is carrying an excessive amount of weight from the lack of provincial programming and supports,” he said. “And that’s having a real time impact on your physical and mental health everyday as a business or property owner in B.C.”
Related:
In 2023, the province rolled out the Securing Small Business Rebate Program which provided rebates to small businesses who were the targets of acts of vandalism. But that program lapsed in January and the provincial government did not revitalize it.
Heighton said across the province many small businesses are now turning to local councils or the BIABC for help in dealing with the daily costs of disruption and vandalism.
But he said that’s only part of the problem. The bigger issue, he said, is the need for other aspects of responsibility and accountability in communities that protect businesses but also the community at large.
At the ministerial level, Heighton said he believes these issues are getting traction, but the challenge is how to move forward operationally.
“It’s really at a crisis point in B.C.,” he said, “and we need the provincial government to step in with a whole of government response to really manage these issues and help us in business to move forward in a positive and proactive way.”
– With files from Amy Beeman