Editor,

Re: ÐÔÊӽ紫ý loses policing transition court case

The City of ÐÔÊӽ紫ý might have lost the judicial review into the ÐÔÊӽ紫ý policing transition, but, in fact, it is ÐÔÊӽ紫ý residents who have already lost so much. Funds and resources that could have gone toward addressing the multiple crises facing the city (housing and homelessness, school programs, health care, overdoses and toxic drugs, youth engagement) and building a foundation for durable community health and safety going forward have been squandered. They can never be recouped.

It is past time for city council to get to work on addressing these issues with the full attention and seriousness they demand. The more optimistic among us ÐÔÊӽ紫ý residents might see this court decision as being the finish line — finally — on this drawn-out fiasco.

The more pessimistic among us might cringe and wait for the next in an apparent closet full of shoes to drop. The mayor has already shown a willingness to waste public money for a court case on behalf of the RCMP. Maybe one day we will get answers for this mayor’s obsessively futile commitment to the RCMP. Long after the writing on the wall dried.

The petty nonsense needs to end if we are truly committed to real community wellbeing in our city.

Dr. Jeff Shantz, department of criminology

Kwantlen Polytechnic University, ÐÔÊӽ紫ý