Williams Lake, B.C., wants to enact state of emergency over public disorder [Video]

City council in Williams Lake, B.C., is looking to impose a state of local emergency over an increase in street disorder and violence — but the proposal has received pushback, and it’s unclear if the B.C. government would fully support it.

Coun. Scott Nelson put forward a motion on Tuesday to ask staff for options regarding a state of local emergency in response to “increased threats to public safety” in the city of around 20,000 people located 324 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

Nelson and the city’s mayor, Surinderpal Rathor, say that there has been a sharp increase in public drug use, mental health challenges and fires in the city’s downtown core, and the motion gives the city options to deal with it.

But civil libertarians and a local First Nation have expressed opposition to the motion, and the province has not said if it would support it.

LISTEN | Nelson explains his motion: Scott Nelson, a city councillor in Williams Lake, wants the …