Williams Lake’s City Council discussed a report from City Staff examining the feasibility of closing the city’s jail following a controversial recommendation from its last meeting.
In short, the City can’t legally close the jails, as it doesn’t own them.
According to the Staff’s report, the RCMP’s detachment building and jail cells are leased to the City from the Province. The City also has no jurisdiction over restricting the jail’s use, nor preventing the RCMP from using its own jail.
What the City can do is remove the jail’s guards, who are City employees, from their posts, and the RCMP would cover the guards’ posts with their officers. RCMP would then bill the City for the costs of the officer’s overtime to guard the jail.
That didn’t stop Councillor Scott Nelson from wanting to pursue the option of continuing to close the jail, despite cautions of potential legal action from the Provincial and Federal governments, as well as the RCMP, as closing the jails would be in breach of the Province’s Municipal Police Unit Agreement and the Police Act.
“I do recognize this reach inside this particular box was a unique one,” Nelson said in Tuesday’s Meeting.
“The report that comes back provides more challenges for us as a community. I’m one where I think we managed to get some political bang out of this, in terms of trying to ensure and send a strong message that we’re not happy that we’ve got significant prolific offenders on the streets of our community that are being caught by the RCMP, being arrested by the RCMP, put into jail, taken over to court, and then subsequently released.”
Council discussed three options brought forward by City Staff, which read as:
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- Option 1 – Do Not Pursue the Concept Further. Council may choose to discontinue consideration of the temporary closure of the municipal jail cells based on the legal, contractual, operational, financial, and staffing limitations outlined in this report.
- Option 2 – Seek Legal Guidance and Further Research Council may direct staff to obtain legal advice on the City’s obligations under the Police Act, the Municipal Police Unit Agreement (MPUA), and the implications of withdrawing municipal guard services. Pursuing this option would require specialized legal counsel, additional staff time, and coordination with the Province, RCMP, and labour representatives.
- Option 3 – Correspondence to Senior Levels of Government Council may direct staff to prepare a letter to senior levels of government outlining Council’s concerns regarding repeat offending and the pressures placed on municipalities. The letter would note that the City is being asked to consider options outside municipal authority, contractual obligations, and operational feasibility (including regarding operation of the jail), and request provincial and federal support for more effective solutions.
City staff noted that pursuing Option 2 would cost the City more money to seek the “high levels” of legal advice and research, and the City’s guards would lose their jobs. The report also noted that with the RCMP operating the jails in lieu of City guards, that would mean fewer officers patrolling the streets, and possibly even quicker release times of prolific offenders and other unhoused criminals. It would also open the door to the City being liable for civil claims, as well as reputational harm.
Mayor Surinderpal Rathor was cautious of pursuing the second option, saying that the City would need to look into further legal advice and further research. He also didn’t want to pursue closing the jails to mar the “best things” that will be going on in the month of June, the Williams Lake Stampede.
I don’t want this to be dominated by wrong signal sending,” Mayor Rathor said. “I don’t want it to slap my face and the council’s face. We need to do the research.”
Mayor Rathor said that if, after more research, it came to a vote, he would support closing the jails, regardless of it costing the City and taxpayers more money. He also said that, according to the recommendation Nelson brought forward at the May 26 council meeting, there will be a public forum held, which will take place on July 15.
Councillor Joan Flaspohler was one of the councillors who spoke out against Option 2 and said she would not support it.
“When you read this report, it’s quite clear that this recommendation had no research and that the topic of trying to close the jails is not going to occur,” said Flaspohler. “I don’t understand why we would even want to spend more money of our taxpayers on paying for legal fees at this point. It makes absolutely no sense to me.”
Flaspohler also said that she, like Councillor Nelson, is “exhausted” by the rising crime and the prolific offenders’ damage to the community, and wants to continue putting pressure on higher levels of government to make meaningful reforms to the criminal acts and prosecution processes.
“I am also exhausted with this negative media, and this negative talk, and us trying to accomplish things and having discussions at this table on items that are unachievable.”
Flaspohler was in support of pursuing options 1 and 3 of the staff report.
Councillor Jasmyn Lyons also praised the simplicity of the staff’s report that stated the options of closing the jails. She also didn’t want to pursue Option 2 at the cost of taxpayer money, and that criminals could be released back into the community faster, and lay-offs of city jobs.
Councillor Michael Moses was also against closing the jail, while understanding and agreeing with Nelson that the RCMP and Bylaw Enforcers need more resources.
“If this is just to get political attention for our community, I’m not in support of this motion,” said Moses. “These continued motions bring negative attention to the City of Williams Lake, and are making it so that doctors and other professionals see these headlines and are less likely to want to move here… I’m continuously growing weary of these motions that attempt to skirt around the law and are senior forms of government.”
Moses was in support of Option 3, to correspond and work with senior levels of government on reform and acquiring more resources. Moses said he did not believe the recommendation to close the jail had moved in that direction.
Councillor Nelson defended his motion and actions by going down a list of incidents and reading a letter from a downtown business. The letter highlighted the issues the business faces. Nelson also said he understood his colleagues’ “growing weary” around the council table, though Nelson also pointed out that the council approved putting a homeless shelter in the City’s downtown, saying the City is only “starting to feel that pain.”
“Don’t think we’re going to take the foot off the pedal,” Nelson said. “If you think that this recommendation in front of us, that I—we brought forward last week is the first, there’s going to be a hell of a lot more coming. The prolific offenders are causing chaos in the is community, and they’re creating public safety issues. So, there’s going to be a lot more recommendations like this.”
Both Councillors Flaspohler and Moses had strong rebuttals to Nelson’s defence. Pointing out that the rising crime and prolific offenders were problem long before the homeless shelter was opened in the summer.
“I’m weary of the ideas that aren’t answers,” said Flaspohler. “So, give answers that are actually going to be ones that we can actually feasibly do, and will generate results. These are ideas that you can’t generate positive results with. That’s the problem.”
“Councillor Nelson, you’re speaking as if my weariness means I’m not doing my part regarding homelessness and local safety… You are twisting my words on purpose. I do not appreciate it. I am not weary of the work, I continue with it and will do so… I am weary of motions that want to bend laws and defy our senior governments.”
In the end, Mayor Rathor called the vote to question. Council unanimously approved looking into Option 3.
The City will hold its public forum with local stakeholders, the RCMP, the Cariboo-Chilcotin’s MLA, and MP, on July 15.
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