NORTH BATTLEFORD — As of March 25, the City of North Battleford has approved the recently updated Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan (CSWB) which they hope is set to address crime in the Battlefords through a wellness approach rather than soley enforcement-based.
"It really talks about how do we do things from a different approach, from a wellness approach to create community safety," Randy Patrick, the City of North Battleford's city manager told council, noting that it meets several of the city's strategic goals.
"So it's not just a city plan, this is a regional plan. One I'm pretty proud of presenting," he said, adding that the city has been working on the plan — which runs from 2024 to 2028 — for roughly a year.
Main focuses, Patrick noted, included working on mental health and substance use, housing, youth supports, and issues surrounding community engagement.
"This is around wellness, it truly is wellness, to create safety. if you can change some of those issues that people are having you can get people out of crime, you can get people out of poverty, in some ways, and I think you can improve your community."
Though Patrick noted that funding has not been located for all the initiatives the plan hopes to accomplish in the long-term, some things like establishing a sobering centre with the provincial government, a drop-in centre for youth, or hiring a coordinator for the plan are priorities for the coming year.
He also noted that this plan also includes a steering and working committee, a desire to assess the demand for housing in the community, and the necessity of educating youth about services and programs available in the community.
Patrick added that the plan won't likely change the budget this year, but that dollars will be tied up in future years if the plan is expected to work.
"I am quite proud of the work that was done. And I think we've got a plan here [that] ... is truly a regional plan and it's going to take the region to make changes."
Councillor Lindgren noted that the city has received criticism in the last couple of weeks that the City of North Battleford was 'hiding it's head in the sands,' regarding the Crime Severity Index.
"I [would] just like to show this as a clear rebuttal of that ... crime, community safety and wellness is not one issue. It's multi-issue, multi-pronged and the city has taken an aggressive stance at developing a large scale Community Safety and Wellness Plan.
As Mayor David Gillan noted as well, the plan allows public safety to be addressed as a regional issue rather than as a 'North Battleford issue.'
