'Lack of accountability’: BC critic for public safety says decriminalization is fuelling street disorder crisis

Elenore Sturko, the BC Conservative MLA for Surrey–Cloverdale and critic for public safety and the Solicitor General, has spoken out about the severe impacts of street disorder on businesses across British Columbia.

In a recent interview with NowMedia video host, Jim Csek, Sturko pointed to grim statistics from the Business Improvement Areas of BC, noted that 74% of businesses report staff anxiety and 19% fear financial non-viability due to theft, vandalism, and related issues.

Those statistics come from a report published by Business Improvement Areas of BC, which represents 55,000 businesses in 80 downtowns, main streets and commercial districts through the province.

The report was published in late August and has garnered a lot of attention, including response from the Downtown Kelowna Association.

Drawing from her recent visits to communities like Kelowna, Prince George, and Williams Lake, Sturko emphasized how decriminalization of drugs has exacerbated antisocial behaviors, violence, and fear among residents and workers.

“I had a chance to see firsthand in communities outside the Lower Mainland some of the challenges that those communities are dealing with,” she said. “And it's really, really tough. It's challenging.”

Sturko strongly advocated for provincial solutions beyond federal bail reform, starting with an immediate end to BC's drug decriminalization pilot.

She said she’s been calling on David Eby and the NDP to end decriminalization in BC and criticized the policy for removing incentives to curb public drug use and intoxication.

“However, we know that they continue to tell police that they will not entertain charges of drug possession and that really does have a consequence,” she said. “If there is no reason for an individual, no incentive for them to stop their rampant public drug use or public intoxication, these people will not do that.”

Csek referred to a recent interview with Kelowna mayor Tom Dyas, in which Dyas demanded action on repeat offenders and bail reform. Earlier this year, Dyas penned an open letter to federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser, where he pointed to another stark example involving one person who accumulated 223 files between 2021 and 2025 along with 32 failures to appear in court.

Sturko said many people with those types of records often have underlying mental health and addiction issues. However, she said the repetitive release of repeat offenders was one of the things that’s “really damaged” Canada and is felt acutely in BC.

She said that street disorder is affecting business owners, which has resulted in a large outcry for change.

“It's closing businesses, it's impacting tourism, and it's making people feel afraid,” she said.

“One in five businesses are worried that they won't be able to stay open in the next year if we don't improve things.”

On Friday, three Okanagan mayors also issued a letter calling for justice reform. Earlier this month, some Okanagan businesses spoke out on the increase in street disorder.

Sturko argued that with the lack of accountability, behaviours leading to street disorder would persist.

She called for appropriate housing options, including intensive or involuntary care for those with severe addictions, mental illness, or brain injuries.

"We need the right fit of housing... including forms of institutional care to support involuntary care for those that need it," Sturko added.

The MLA also lambasted the NDP's ideological approach, claiming their "safe supply" experiment has fueled organized crime and failed to help people recover.

She referenced Oregon's decriminalization review, which showed increased violent crime, and accused the BC government of hiding similar statistics.

KelownaNow interviewed Yung in early September. He said he supported Kelowna mayor Tom Dyas’ call for federal bail reform, which was included in a letter to Sean Fraser, Canada’s minister of justice and attorney general.

When asked about collaboration with Parliamentary Secretary Terry Young, Sturko dismissed claims of partnership.

"We aren't collaborating... Parliamentary Secretary Young would like to make this a non-partisan issue primarily because of the NDP's failures,” she said.

“Unfortunately it is a partisan issue because it is the decision making of the government in power that has led us to the situation that we're in. It is their resistance to enforcing the laws on the books, and I'm talking about drug laws that would help us reduce public drug use and hold people accountable and use our courts.”

Sturko criticized the BC NDP’s ideological belief not to keep people in custody and said sometimes it was appropriate to keep some people off the streets to protect the public.

“Unfortunately, that's not how David Eby has seen things. He's an activist premier that spent the majority of his young life as a lawyer fighting against the police, fighting to keep people out of incarceration even when they needed it,” she claimed.

“It's only common sense that you keep dangerous people away from others, uh, you know, for the good of society. And I think that we actually need to even push harder and we need to go further to make sure that we're keeping communities safe.”

Sturko extended her critique to healthcare, decrying frequent emergency room closures in rural areas, which she linked to the province's ballooning debt and reliance on costly contract nurses.

She said the larger debt and deficit, which hit a record $11.6 billion, is impacting frontline investment across the province.

She urged restructuring and partnerships to bridge gaps, emphasizing that mismanagement affects lives directly.

“These are really serious problems that we're dealing with,” she said.

“But the good news is that there's actually solutions that can be implemented here, provincially.

This isn't all about federal bail reform and there's things that can be done that will substantially improve the conditions.”