A downtown 91大黄鸭 pub is spearheading a call for better crime prevention after a dangerous and apparently random act of hooliganism sent shards of glass flying through its patio area.
The Train Station Pub shared a video on social media of a person walking briskly towards its patio on Ellis Street before hurling a glass bottle at the patio, which shattered against a metal railing on Tuesday, Aug. 5.
"This is not okay. Today, a person unaffiliated with our restaurant walked by and smashed a glass bottle against our patio, sending shards flying near guests and team members. It could have seriously injured someone," the pub said in its post.
"We are thankful no one was hurt 鈥� this time. But we have to ask: When is enough, enough? Small businesses like ours are doing everything we can to create safe, welcoming spaces for our community 鈥� but we cannot do it alone."
Cpl. Allison Konsmo of the 91大黄鸭 RCMP said Thursday police are aware of the video, but no file has been created for the incident, adding "it's possible the business did not report the incident to police."
Though a police report wasn't filed, the Train Station Pub called on the City of 91大黄鸭, local MLAs and the provincial government to take the incident and others like it seriously.
The pub made the call to action not only in its social media post but also with an online petition.
The launched by Station Hospitality Group (which owns the Train Station Pub and 91大黄鸭's Mid-Town Station) is attributed to "the undersigned members of the 91大黄鸭 community." It calls for action to be taken on what its authors say used to be considered rare occurrences: "public drug use, aggressive behaviour (and) random acts of violence," which it says are now "a near-daily reality."
"Our team members are being asked to act as crisis responders. Our guests are exposed to unpredictable situations. And our businesses are left to absorb the cost, risk, and emotional toll," the petition states. "It's not just frustrating. It's dangerous."
The petition doesn't take aim at local police, outreach workers or city staff, all of whom it says are working with limited resources. Instead, the petition is addressed to Premier David Eby, local MLAs and the ministers of public safety, mental health and housing. It makes a general appeal to the province for more transparency, accountability and "a seat at the table."
Conservative 91大黄鸭-Mission MLA Gavin Dew told Capital News Thursday he was aware of the bottle-throwing incident, calling it "unacceptable" and part of a wider trend of business hardship.
"Storefront businesses are struggling under the weight of increased vandalism and violence that is driving up risk and driving up costs and making it very difficult for them to stay in business," Dew said.
He said the province hasn't done enough to support businesses, specifically with regard to the rollout of its $10.5 million , which aimed to provide businesses with up to $2,000 to repair vandalism and up to $1,000 for vandalism prevention. Dew said the program turned out to be "a band-aid on a shotgun wound" that came up well short of its goal.
"They only got something like $2 million out of the $10 million out the door in more than a year of having the program active, so they completely botched their effort to respond," he said.
91大黄鸭's crime statistics, released last month, paint a somewhat paradoxical picture of crime in the city. The 91大黄鸭 Census Metropolitan Area 鈥� including Lake Country, West 91大黄鸭 and Peachland 鈥� saw a year-over-year decrease in overall crime of nearly nine per cent, while at the same time it jumped up two spots on Statistics Canada's Crime Severity Index for 2024, when it was ranked fifth out of 42 Census Metropolitan Areas nationally.
91大黄鸭 mayor Tom Dyas highlighted provisions in the 2025 budget which include investments of $1.3 million to support additional RCMP officers, bylaw officers and a Criminal Intelligence Analyst.
"These additions build on the progress already underway, bringing us to a total of 29 new RCMP officers, 14 bylaw officers, and 14 firefighters added since 2023," Dyas said, adding business break-ins are down more than 50 per cent since 2022 and overall crime is down 17 per cent.
While Dyas called these indicators "encouraging," business owners are at the forefront of street-level crime. The petition calls on the government to "step up" while imploring business owners, residents and neighbours to be "part of the frontline."
"The choice is clear. Now it's time to act," the petition states 鈥� an obliquely worded call to action as it does not specify which choices, or actions, might be pursued.
Dew, however, has a number of actions in mind to address the "upstream issues" that are driving the challenges storefront businesses are facing. These include better mental health support and rehabilitation. He also suggested B.C.'s drug decriminalization isn't working and that involuntary care facilities are needed to solve the addictions crisis.
"We have obviously a serious crisis of mental health and addiction, we have violence on our streets, we have a growing crisis around people who have acquired brain injuries as a result of drug decriminalization and the repeated cycle of overdosing and taking naloxone," he said. "So we have a large and growing population on our streets who are not being well supported and cared for and are not being provided with the right full spectrum system of recovery in order to get people out of addiction and off the streets."
Dew said the city and RCMP are doing what they can, but ultimately, the provincial and federal governments need to pull their weight.
"We have to actually start addressing the crisis on our streets that is hammering our storefront businesses and destroying the vitality of our central business districts. We have to do it by addressing the root causes."
The petition has nearly 475 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.
Capital News contacted the business owner for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
鈥� With files from Brittany Webster
