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Kelowna mayor Colin Basran has weighed in on today’s comments from the RCMP’s Southeast District Chief Supt. Brad Haugli.
Basran said it was good to hear Haugli acknowledge the disturbing nature of the wellness check involving UBCO student Mona Wang and that an external police force would be reviewing the incident.
Like Haugli, Basran believes changes need to be made with regards to how the RCMP responds to situations like Wang’s, and similar to Haugli, the mayor is starting the process with Interior Health.
“The City Manager and I are meeting with Interior Health next week to discuss the escalating numbers of calls for assistance on mental health incidents and how best to proceed in the future,” said Basran.
“However, a new approach is going to take all levels of government and social agencies working together to address mental illness and addictions.”
The City of Kelowna will be actively involved in this process and “do whatever we can within our powers” to find solutions, Basran added.
Just like Haugli did this morning, the mayor acknowledged the increasing number of mental health related files that the Kelowna RCMP has had to respond to over recent years.
He called for senior government funding to address social issues and to provide the appropriate non-police responses for these situations.
“The real issue here is the need to rethink our systems, how they are funded and coordinated to provide the most effective response to the increasing and increasingly complex mental health needs in communities,” he said.
Basran said he’ll continue to advocate for a coordinated approach to these situations, as it requires the involvement of all levels of government.
“The number of incidents is growing and what we all want to see are more effective solutions to reduce crisis responses that require police,” remarked the mayor.
Finally, Basran said that police perform a difficult and critical job in our community every day, and while recent events are disturbing, it’s moments like these where we need to reconsider how we’re funding and approaching these situations.
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