John Horn says he鈥檚 cautiously optimistic that Cowichan鈥檚 social problems, particularly in the troubled highway corridor, can be successfully dealt with.

Horn, the Municipality of North Cowichan鈥檚 director of social planning and protective services, told City of Duncan council at its meeting on March 10 that he believes that if the stakeholders in the region approach the issues collaboratively and coherently, the problems can be solved in just a few years.

鈥淚鈥檓 optimistic we鈥檙e going to make a dent in it this year, and while it will take us a couple of years, I do believe we can wrestle this problem down to the ground,鈥� Horn said. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 be here if I didn鈥檛 think we can do it.鈥�

Horn was at the meeting to provide an update to council on the ongoing efforts of North Cowichan, Duncan and Cowichan Tribes to update their Safer Community Plan for the area, which was first established in 2019 in an effort to deal with crime and public disorder in the highway corridor.

As part of the process, Horn said organizers reached out to businesses, residents and other stakeholders mainly from the highway corridor through open houses, visits to homes and businesses and a survey, among other initiatives, to gather public input on what has been done, and what needs to be done, moving forward.

The survey found that more than half of respondents, 52.2 per cent, indicated that they only occasionally feel safe, or feel they are never safe, in the highway corridor area.

Coun. Garry Bruce said that from his perspective, the efforts to deal with the social issues in the area to date are not working, and that the streets are an 鈥渁bsolute disaster鈥�.

鈥淒uncan鈥檚 embarrassing for me for me right now and we鈥檙e getting known far and wide for it,鈥� he said. 鈥淐an you see any chance of any political will changing in our [senior levels of government]? Are we going to address this problem or will we be drawing away at it a year from now and doing little bits of things and still be in the same problem we鈥檙e in right now, which is an absolute mess?鈥�

Horn said he鈥檚 been working on the issues for a number of years so he tends to temper his optimism, but one of the reasons he鈥檚 working at it so diligently in the Cowichan region is because the scale and size of the issues in the area are small compared to larger centres.

鈥淲hile it feels overwhelming to the folks who鈥檝e had to put up with it every day, I believe it鈥檚 a small enough problem that we can get our hands around it here,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he numbers are small here while in many other cities, those numbers are so far out of reach that they are no longer even possible to address. Looking at the Vancouvers and Victorias of the world, they鈥檒l never catch up.鈥�

Horn said the Cowichan region demonstrated during the pandemic that it could 鈥渢ake a fairly good chunk out of the homeless population鈥� when the will is there to do it from the province and local groups and organizations.

鈥淲hen I watched how the last election went and how the provincial government is forming now, I believe they have realized that it became very tough for them to answer these kinds of questions about what they are doing about public safety,鈥� he said.

Horn said he believes that focused the government鈥檚 attention on the fact that it needs to do more and be better with dealing with the social issues in the province.

鈥淚 think it gave them a bit of wake up call that they鈥檙e going to have to take more aggressive measures, and I think we鈥檙e going to see that coming out in the near future,鈥� he said.

Horn added that, in his experience, the communities that are united, coherent and clear get a lot more from the province than communities that aren鈥檛.

鈥淥ne of the reasons I鈥檓 here is because everyone gets together and they get clear and coherent and then go and ask for one thing from the government with one voice,鈥� he said.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 really important when you're extracting resources from a beleaguered provincial government. They have a million people asking them for things and clear, loud, consistent and coherent voices cut through the din.鈥�

The updated Safer Community Plan is expected to be released this spring.