Dennis Murphy, a longtime downtown resident and owner of Music People DJ Service, called Tuesday night for a crisis meeting with Sault MPP Ross Romano and MP Terry Sheehan to take action on safety issues. “Sault Ste. Marie is no longer safe,” Murphy said at a forum for Ward 2 candidates in the Oct. 24 municipal election. “I talk to a lot of people in Ward 2. They don’t want to be walking downtown at 10 in the morning where there’s a lot of people shooting. They don’t want to see that,” Murphy said. “We need to take the handcuffs off our police. We need to talk to the province. Start putting people in jail. Start cleaning up the neighborhoods.” Murphy is one of four candidates running for city council in the central Ward 2 district. The others are Luke Dufour, Lisa Vezeau-Allen and Nick Armstrong. Armstrong did not attend Tuesday night’s candidate forum, hosted by Algoma University, Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce and SooToday. Organizers said Armstrong told them he “didn’t feel well.” “It’s time to come together and say we’re in a crisis,” Murphy said in response to a question about public health and safety. “It is time to call an emergency management meeting, including our MP and our MPP to take action to address the many problems.” Murphy opposes some recent downtown improvement initiatives, including the downtown plaza and transit terminal relocation. But he says we need to spend to put more emergency boots on the ground. “There are not enough emergency services to deal with these issues, which are 24/7.” “We need to hire more police. I notice four more police are being hired right now. We need another 10, maybe.” Murphy says we also need at least four more firefighters, as well as additional emergency medical personnel. “We just need to come together as a team and make Sault Ste. Marie safe again,” he told the forum. Vezeau-Allen, who chairs the Sault Ste. Marie Police Services Board, spoke about efforts to educate downtown businesses about lighting and other issues related to crime prevention through environmental design. He also mentioned a community safety and well-being plan involving more than 40 organizations. “I think it’s up to us as councilors to engage with these committees and understand the work that’s being done,” Vezo-Allen said. Luke Dufour warned that health care is constitutionally the responsibility of the provincial government. The province, Dufour said, has “significantly more resources than a municipality to deal with a very serious public health crisis that we’re in right now for mental health and addictions.” He said the city can double down on things under its purview, including housing. “How can we increase the amount of supportive housing available so that healthcare workers can be on site 24/7 to care for the people who need it most?” “Let there be no mistake: we still need to hold the province accountable to find the level of service in Sault Ste. Marie that these other communities will have to deal with.”
