A federal report on crime rates across the country ranks Kelowna as worst in Canada when it comes to crime rate.
Metro Kelowna is listed in the Statistics Canada Crime Severity Index as having a rate of 11,112 per 100,000 residents.
It’s the highest rate in the country, and the only rate reaching into five digits. In second, looking at that metric, is the Lethbridge, Alta., area at 9,836 per 100,000.
Third is Moncton, N.B., at 9,168.
By comparison the rates for Metro Vancouver, Victoria and Abbotsford-Mission are 5,898, 5,863 and 5,801, respectively.
The rate in the census metropolitan area of Kelowna is up 10 per cent year over year.
According to the data from StatCan, there were 27,147 Criminal Code violations in the region in 2021, resulting in charges against 2,338 people. Of the total offences, about 8,260 cases were cleared, whether through charges or otherwise.
StatCan puts the crime severity index (CSI), which is 73.7 across Canada, at 122.3 in Kelowna. The area, which includes the city as well as West Kelowna, Lake Country, Peachland and other census subdivisions, is not first in this category but second, after Lethbridge.
The CSI is not based on violent crime alone, but on all police-reported offences under the Criminal Code, meaning some traffic offences, for example, would also count toward the number. But the crime rate, where Kelowna ranks highest, is based on Criminal Code incidents excluding traffic violations.
Filtering to violent crime only, Kelowna sits in seventh. Major issues in the city, based on this data, are opioid-related offences, child pornography, shoplifting, mischief and fraud. Where it did better than in previous years is in crimes including trafficking, production and importation of methamphetamine, and identity fraud.
The annual CSI is compared to a baseline set at 100 in 2006 in Canada.
The CSI for Canada this year is down 0.3 per cent from last year, something StatCan in part attributes to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
British Columbia as a province saw one of the largest downward impacts in the country, at five per cent. Behind this decrease were fewer reports of breaking and entering, theft under $5,000 and general fraud, but sexual assault was up in B.C., StatCan said.
The data reported Tuesday, collected in 2021, suggested an overall decrease in police-reported crime in Canada. But the decrease was driven by dips in non-violent crime.
Police-reported violence was actually up last year in the country to a level higher than what it was before the pandemic began.
TORONTO – Ontario is pushing through several bills with little or no debate, which the government house leader says is due to a short legislative sitting.
The government has significantly reduced debate and committee time on the proposed law that would force municipalities to seek permission to install bike lanes when they would remove a car lane.
It also passed the fall economic statement that contains legislation to send out $200 cheques to taxpayers with reduced debating time.
The province tabled a bill Wednesday afternoon that would extend the per-vote subsidy program, which funnels money to political parties, until 2027.
That bill passed third reading Thursday morning with no debate and is awaiting royal assent.
Government House Leader Steve Clark did not answer a question about whether the province is speeding up passage of the bills in order to have an election in the spring, which Premier Doug Ford has not ruled out.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
