There are secret words to watch out for from politicians that can help you decode their true message. One of them is “intent.”
Governments profess support for the “intent” of recommendations when they don’t really like what’s been suggested, but for whatever reason can’t say that out loud. Instead, politicians will deploy the word “intent” in clever ways to make it appear they’re about to do something specific, when in reality they intend to go off in a different direction.
That phrasing played out repeatedly in the B.C. government’s recent response to the commission of inquiry into public safety, struck after an attacker in a vehicle killed 11 people at the Lapu-Lapu Day festival in Vancouver on April 26.
Former justice Christopher Hinkson released a 64-page report into how to improve public safety at community events, with six recommendations for the province.
“We accept the intent of all the recommendations,” was the response from Terry Yung, B.C.’s minister of state for community safety.
Four times the minister used the phrase in his press conference.
“We fully accept the intent of these recommendations,” he said, after one query into whether he has a timeline for action.
“We're working closely with our partners out there, with event planners, municipalities, different levels of government [on] how best to make them work, implement them into realities and practice. We’re hoping to do this as soon as we can.”
At first blush, it felt like an odd response from a government that commissioned the report, selected the author and mandated a quick turnaround of 60 days so it could get moving quickly.
Hinkson’s top-line recommendations seemed simple enough: more planning, resources, training, collaboration and clarity on event safety at public events.
But it’s the details that give the province pause.
Particularly the recommendation for more financial support to pay for things like fencing, barriers, traffic control equipment and emergency services for event organizers.
“In addition, the province should provide direct funding or staffing support to municipalities, particularly those in smaller or under-resourced jurisdictions, to assist with event permitting, safety planning, and coordination,” wrote Hinkson.
“Municipalities should be encouraged to establish or designate in-house roles focused on event production and safety coordination to build institutional knowledge and long-term capacity.”
The government doesn’t have the money to help pay for B.C.’s 161 municipalities to staff up on event safety jobs. Nor can it afford to suddenly have to cover emergency planning costs for every cheese festival, show and shine, community days and heritage fest from Port Renfrew to Pouce Coupe.
There are thousands of public events in B.C. each year, and even modest grants of a few thousand dollars would quickly balloon into an expenditure of tens of millions of dollars.
The NDP government is already into an estimated $13-billion deficit this year, the worst in its history, and the premier is cutting spending, not adding it.
Politically, there are other issues.
Hinkson’s recommendations put almost everything onto the provincial government—a centralized hub for event safety across B.C., with training, advice and tools for everyone; a provincial repository of event safety data and case studies; regular tabletop exercises for communities as well as after-action reports; and provincial leadership in sorting out jurisdictional issues for public safety between local governments, regional governments, first responders and Indigenous nations.
All of that, according to Hinkson, should be designed in co-operation with local governments, event organizers, public safety agencies, the federal government and First Nations.
On the one hand, the province is the only one who can take this on. Who else in British Columbia has the capacity?
But it’s also an enormous set of expectations that come with equally large political risks. If something goes wrong at a future public event, it is the province that will take the blame over whether it properly oversaw planning, funding, co-ordination and approval of what was in reality a locally run event built on local decisions.
The Hinkson report also quoted forensic psychiatrist Roy O’Shaughnessy in explaining that some risks of violence at public events simply cannot be predicted. And it skipped entirely the role of mental illness and available mental health services in mitigating risk of attacks.
Perhaps it’s no wonder Yung would only commit to the “intent” of the recommendations and not the exact prescription spelled out by Hinkson.
There’s a lot here for the province to digest. And simply doing as asked might not be feasible, affordable or politically viable.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for The Orca/BIV. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
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