$412,000.00 FENCE TO PROTECT CITY STAFF

Fencing Off Failure 

Another $412,000 Band-Aid at City Hall

Once again, the City of Nanaimo wants to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars—not to solve a problem, but to wall themselves off from it.

A new staff report recommends $412,000 for fencing and security upgrades around City Hall and the Service and Resource Centre (SARC). Why? Because disorder, vandalism, open drug use, and safety concerns have made the area increasingly unsafe for staff. And much of that activity is directly linked to the sanctioned Overdose Prevention Site (OPS) next door at 250 Albert Street—funded by Island Health and operated by CMHA and surrounded by ongoing chaos.

Let’s be honest: this is not a fencing problem. This is a drug use and street disorder problem—years in the making and growing worse, not better. This fencing proposal is a reactive cost, not a solution. It’s a symptom of a deeper failure: the refusal of government at every level to deal directly with addiction, mental health, and repeat criminal behavior in a meaningful way.

This isn’t about compassion vs. cruelty—it’s about competence. When local government becomes so overwhelmed by the unintended consequences of badly managed harm reduction policy that they’re forced to fence off their own facilities for safety, it should ring alarm bells.

And it isn’t just City Hall bearing the cost. Nearby businesses have reported theft, damage, and a loss of customers. Residents avoid the downtown core. Taxpayers are now expected to foot the bill for wrought iron fences because our leaders won’t confront the true cost of failing policies.

Fencing might deter loitering—but it won’t fix broken systems. Until we address the root causes of chronic street disorder—including untreated addiction, permissive criminal enforcement, and a lack of real recovery options—expect to see more fences, more locked gates, and more public dollars spent to protect civic staff from the very programs their own government helped set up.

This links to the Staff Report coming July 16 Click HERE

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