How much will those promises cost taxpayers annually, and where are you gonna get the money?

money?Well, I mean, I think we've seen from, from this current administration that, that despite a zero percent budget increase, there's money that magically appears to finance extending the Granville pedestrian zone or a fireworks show or a non-binding plebiscite on the, on the, on the ballot.

So there is that money floating around that I think that the mayor has been able to tap into, again, with a little bit more transparency on the budget.

The, you know, these, the community safety office and, and those kind of interventions are relatively low cost, and I think the, the, the key distinction here is what we're looking at is taking a proactive approach rather than a reactive approach.

So police, sanitation, fire, those are very reactive approaches to the issues around community safety and, and, and, and what we see on the streets.

If we can get ahead of those by intervening appropriately and trying to redirect folks from streets into more appropriate facilities, crisis intervention and de-escalation using a, a totally different approach that has been proven and has worked in other jurisdictions and have successfully curtailed their extent of street disorder, I think those are, those are opportunities that we should be looking at, and I think it's probably showing better, better use of tax funds, to be honest with you.

Are Vancouver property owners gonna pay higher taxes under a Green Party mayor?

Um, we're pretty committed to keeping taxes reasonable and, and in line with inflation.

Why do you believe that approach is gonna make Vancouverites feel safer?

Well, I mean, I think it, it, it's, that's just a, a small part of a larger suite of, of approaches.

I think what we've seen is the last four years with Ken Sim, who, who really did roll in on this comm- you know, public safety narrative and, and more policing.

It hasn't really demonstrably changed, uh, the outcomes.

We know that violent crime has been trending down across North America, and, and certainly we see that here in Vancouver as well.

But people feel, still feel unsafe on our streets, in no small part because of unhoused folks who are, are mentally ill and addicted and, and this sort of visible manifestation on our streets.

So what we believe is that first and foremost, we need to have more opportunities for folks to get off the streets.

Uh, but what would you say to residents who feel unsafe on their streets today about simply diverting to supervised confu- consumption sites or shelters rather than simply more enforcement? Like, people want them off the streets as opposed to just being diverted to somewhere else within their neighborhood.

[chuckles]

We love each other, but we only see each other once a year, and I have no idea what the rest of them are up to until we meet up at the family reunion, right? So, so I mean, I'm, I, I think most people who are familiar with what I do and what I have been doing is I'm, I am pretty center.

Like, I'm not really an extreme environmentalist.

I'm an urban guy.

I live in the city.

I'm not, you know, I'm not a farmer or a nature guy per se.

I mean, I, obviously I love nature and all that kind of thing, but I'm, I'm a pretty urban guy, so a lot of what I've been interested in has always been around the urban experience.

Mm-hmm

... maybe before we get started, Pete, can you start by telling our listeners a little bit about yourself?

Yeah.

Well, um, my name's Pete Fry.

I, uh, was born in Ireland and immigrated here when I was a, a little boy and grew up in Vancouver.

Uh, and pretty much everything about me has been shaped by Vancouver.

I had a career.

I dropped out of SFU in 1988 to start, uh, doing...

[chuckles]