Prince George-Cariboo North MLA Sheldon Clare says the NDP’s decriminalization pilot program was a huge failure !
Clare says it was inevitable that it had to be dropped.
“What we’re talking about is three lost years of an NDP government that just didn’t get it. The Conservatives, we do get it, we know what needs to be done. We need to start taking people off of drugs, get them into care, and quit pretending that this ideological foolish experiment that has caused so much damage had any chance of working.”
Clare says the writing was on the wall very early on.
“I was horrified when I heard what they planned to do because they have an idealistic approach, which is not a very good way to look at how criminals and addicts process the information before them. This has just been a mistake from the get-go, so it’s been a three year failed experiment that they’ve been warned about, told about again and again, and finally they’re starting to realize that.”
He says things have gotten even worse.
“The people I’ve been listening too when I’ve been walking the streets in Quesnel, or Prince George, or Vancouver, or on the Island, they’re fed up, they’re done. Businesses can’t take this vandalism, fires, people want to be able to go to a park with their kids and not step on a needle. They don’t want what has happened here, and this activist approach that the NDP has brought to almost everything they do has been destructive to our culture, our lifestyle, our economy and almost anything else.”
Clare says they’re not sure what the NDP plans to do next, but he says the Conservatives do have a plan.
“What needs to happen is we need to deal with repeat offenders, we need to deal with the small number of people that are committing a large number of offences. If they need to be put through the courts they need to go through that system, or if they need to get care they need to be getting treatment for their addictions or other issues, and we need to move forward as a province in order to make sure that everybody can be successful here.”
Clare says what has been going on for the last several years has simply been destructive.
