The City of Nanaimo plans to hire a consultant to help map out a plan for how to use $1.85 million in federal funding to combat gun and gang violence.
A strategic plan outlining activities and outcomes over the next four years is one of the requirements of receiving the money under the federal Building Safer Communities Fund.
“I think it would be foolish to say no to this because we have a bit of an issue in the community with violence,” Coun. Jim Turley said.
The discussion comes amid a string of firearm-related offences in Nanaimo.
One person was sent to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries after a Thursday night shooting outside a home in Nanaimo’s Lost Lake area.
Nanaimo RCMP said a man in his 30s was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to hospital, and the incident appears to be isolated.
Witnesses told police they saw a suspect flee in a vehicle.
In mid-June, RCMP seized a loaded sawed-off shotgun and a loaded modified single-shot, 22-calibre rifle in two separate incidents.
Police discovered the rifle when talking with a group sitting on the steps of the Nanaimo Military Museum. An officer noticed that one person had the rifle concealed in his waistband. The man was arrested and the firearm was seized, along with 16 rounds of ammunition.
In another case, a 47-year-old man was arrested after police responded to a report of a man passed out behind the wheel in a vehicle, and found a shotgun in a backpack in the vehicle, along with crack and powdered cocaine and other drugs.
The $250-million community safety fund was announced in May by the federal government, which recently notified Nanaimo that it was in line for $1.85 million.
The first year of funding would go toward planning how the money would be allocated for the following three fiscal years, Lisa Bhopalsingh, Nanaimo’s director of community development, told council.
Funding parameters allow for a variety of projects, she said. The money is being directed specifically at municipalities and not law-enforcement agencies. Nanaimo would work in partnership with the RCMP, the Snuneymuxw First Nation and non-profit organizations as it develops the plan, which would include pilot projects.
“We have a great partnership with the RCMP and other entities that we know are interested in working with us and looking at this as a preventative and resiliency-building opportunity,” Bhopalsingh said.
Recreational and other ventures focused on youth and others at risk could be included in hopes of preventing them from getting involved in violence. The aim would be to fund initiatives that complement what is already in place, she said.
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