B.C. AUDITOR FED UP WITH SEX, DRUGS ON DOORSTEP

Coincidently, van Iersel to audit province's strategy on homeless

Addicts are having sex and shooting up drugs outside the downtown
Victoria office of the B.C. auditor general, and he -- like many
others -- is fed up with the situation.

In a tersely worded letter to Victoria city council and police, Arn
van Iersel expressed his "great concern" over safety issues in and
around the alleys of Bastion Square, and said the number of police
must be increased in the area.

"Just last week we had a couple fornicating outside our training
room," writes van Iersel in a letter dated Feb. 13. "We also again
had people shooting up drugs outside our back door. This is not the
workplace I or my staff would like to have, and certainly not the
image we want to have about Victoria."

In an interview yesterday about the letter, van Iersel revealed his
office will soon start an audit of the provincial government's
homeless strategy -- although he said the two issues aren't related.
The auditor general's role is to conduct independent audits of the
government to see how efficiently it is running programs and spending
taxpayer money.

In the letter, Van Iersel asked the city to consider more
surveillance cameras, and noted the building's landlord has hired
someone to pick up syringes every day.

"While this is a help, I think what we need is more of a police
presence," he wrote.

The office has been located in Bastion Square for the past 30 years.
Van Iersel admitted the drug and homelessness problems, which have
been raised repeatedly by other Bastion Square businesses, are not
exactly new to the area and are large social problems faced outside
Victoria as well.

However, staff who used to enter the office through a back door near
the parkade now feel their safety is at risk, he said. Many are
worried about stepping on one of the syringes or being confronted
when alone, he said.

In a reply to van Iersel, city administration manager Sheryl Masters
wrote that Victoria faces "some complex social issues" in the
downtown core but is working with numerous groups to make things better.

She wrote that the city hopes to reduce addiction, street urination
and nuisance problems by improving lighting, cleaning and emergency
shelters, changing its graffiti and panhandling bylaws, and adding
more police to the area.