The RCMP decide shopping carts are not the problem.
"The current plan for shopping carts in Kelowna is that there is no plan for shopping carts in Kelowna."
McVarnick says the RCMP will concentrate on what he sees as the real problem – drugs and property crime.
"We've refocused, based on the media coverage of the shopping cart issue. Everybody is clear the downtown initiatives are going to focus on criminal activity." - CBC News
That took some work. The RCMP in Kelowna last month announced a campaign to relieve the homeless of the shopping carts they were using because the carts were obviously stolen. It was a an ill thought out idea. The media and public saw through it right away.
The plan is part of the City of Kelowna's inept approach and attitude to dealing with social issues. Up until a year or so ago, current Mayor Gray, an ardent supporter of the Campbell Liberals said social issues were not the City's concern and were rightly the problem of the provincial and federal governments.
This attitude has made the problems in Kelowna's downtown worse. The homeless numbers have gone way up here since the Campbell Liberals were elected, the City's response has been to deny there is a problem and in classic 1930's style would love to pick up these undesirables and drop them on the road headed out of town with a warning not to allow their face to darken their fair city again.
There is a four pillars program here in Kelowna. It has made little progress and is being used largely as cover by the Mayor and local MLA Sindi Hawkins who remains silent on the issues of homelessness, mental health and drug addictions. The committee has very little funding and even less support from the City.
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