Flin Flon city councillors heard a delegation from someone stating problems with perceived panhandling on Main Street.
Council heard from Denare Beach resident Elizabeth Wooley during their July 7 meeting, who shared stories of panhandlers on Main Street she described as “intimidating.”
“I’ve been noticing it more and more every day,” said Wooley, who said she comes into Flin Flon for supplies on nearly a daily basis.
“I walked to the Royal Bank and found four people - two men and two women - asking people for money as they walked by. One of the men stepped right out in front of a woman my age, stopped her and asked for money. At first, she said no, but as he wasn’t going to move and let her by, she gave him some. After she went on, he said to his cohorts, ‘See - that’s how it’s done.’”
While continuing her errands, Wooley called the RCMP on the group from a business on Main Street.
“The ladies behind the counter thanked me and said it was really becoming an issue and if they see them, they call the RCMP as well,” she told council.
Wooley asked council if there was anything in City bylaws to prevent panhandling.
“They’re breaking the law by panhandling and the RCMP are the ones to enforce that,” said Flin Flon Mayor Cal Huntley.
RCMP officers from the Flin Flon detachment have occasionally done foot patrols down Main Street to deal with possible crime in the area.
“In the 11 years that I’ve lived out at the beach, and I’m in town almost every day, I’ve never seen a police officer walking on Main Street,” Wooley said.
“They do. It’s randomly scheduled, but they do report to us when they make their appearances after the fact,” Huntley said.
“There’s no way that you’re going to have an RCMP presence 100 per cent of the time on Main Street during working hours. The police have other business to do. We don’t have a police force that can sit on Main Street.”
After Wooley’s delegation, council members said RCMP would be in charge of enforcing any issues with panhandling within Flin Flon, not a city bylaw officer, adding that the first step people should do when they feel credibly threatened is to call police.
“If we call our bylaw officer, he’s just going to call the cops,” said councillor Tim Babcock.
“We would encourage people to do that. We can’t put people in jail. We can give out fines, but who’s going to pay the fine? It’s a tough situation. It’s not unique to Flin Flon, but it’s one that we have to deal with,” Huntley added.
RCMP provide periodic updates on enforcement and crime to city council, including Main Street foot patrols.
“We do get logs from RCMP of crime within our region every two or three months and they’ll bring the log and show us who did street patrols on what day. They keep track of that stuff,” Babcock said.
“We know that it is happening and we don’t see it all the time, but it’s all recorded.”
