After opening her clothing store on Main Street in Smithers in 2008, Caroline Marko said Salt Boutique went a dozen years with only a pumpkin stolen – until the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything.
“We’ve been robbed at syringe point, we’ve had break-ins, theft, vandalism, we’ve seen cars set on fire,” said the third-generation tailor who moved to the mountain town from Sweden in 1998. “I’ve lived all over the world and I have never seen any of these things.”
Marko doesn’t believe the small northwestern B.C. community has a housing or homeless problem, and said the fundamental issue is drugs.
“Everything leads back to drugs, regardless of how big or how small of a crime it is, it leads back to drugs,” she told Global News in an interview.
The Cost of Safety
Marko said she hasn’t been able to leave her staff alone in her store since 2020, when a proliferation of petty crime and break-and-enters forced businesses in the town of 5,400 to invest thousands of dollars in security.
The street disorder and criminal activity coincide with the establishment of a homeless encampment in Veterans Peace Park across from Smithers Town Hall, which has since been designated as a Temporary Overnight Sheltering Area (TOSA).
Following repeated fires, council approved up to $234,000 per year for private security to monitor the encampment and conduct roving patrols of the downtown core overnight on weekdays and 24/7 on weekends.
At the same time, the town has allocated $126,000 for infrastructure upgrades at what’s known as Tent City.
“There is a huge amount of empathy and wanting to help save these people,” said Marko. “At the same time, we are really tired of footing the bill for this as small businesses.”
Marko said anything helps when asked about the homeless camp’s private security contract, adding she’d prefer the money be put towards another RCMP officer.
Baron Carter of Carters Jewellers said council is not catering to the bulk of the town’s residents and businesses when it spends more time accommodating some two dozen individuals in the encampment.
“It would be nice if we had somebody that had our back and somebody that was concerned about the majority of town,” Carter told Global News in an interview.
Break-ins have taken a toll on the family business Carter’s parents started in Smithers in 1974 and more than half a century later, everything is under lock and key inside with shutters on the outside.
Carter said he’s spent thousands of dollars on security measures to keep his 12 employees at the head office location safe and comfortable.
While he’s seen the downtowns in Carters Jewellers’ five other northern B.C. locations reach a line of no return where crime and drugs take over, Carter said, until recently, his hometown was a diamond in the rough.
“We were so blessed so we had to protect that and it’s not being done,” said Carter. “We’re on that line now, this town is teetering.”
Crime in Smithers
While violent crime in Smithers decreased by 33 per cent between 2021 and 2024, according to Statistics Canada, incidents of property crime went up by 32 per cent over the same period.
Shoplifting under $5,000 soared 304 per cent from 23 incidents in 2021 to 93 in 2024, while incidents of theft under $5,000 increased from 71 in 2021 to 161 in 2024, a 127 per cent spike.
Smithers RCMP said they are seeing a decline in property crime and shoplifting in the first nine months of 2025.
According to Const. Jocelyn Foidart, shoplifting accounted for 12 per cent of total calls from January to September, down from 45 per cent last year.
Property offences also decreased, representing 17 per cent of calls so far in 2025 compared to 28 per cent in 2024.
Foidart, who has a dual role as an RCMP officer and registered social worker, said enhanced patrols and timely referrals to community supports are reducing repeat calls and helping ease pressure on businesses and residents.
“If you address the root causes of crime we’ve seen in Smithers, then our calls for service do go down,” Foidart told Global News.
Foidart said she’s bridging the gap between law enforcement and health and social services, and has helped young women at the encampment access treatment options.
“I know that when we support folks to get the services that they need that they don’t end up coming into contact with police,” said Foidart.
Smithers Citizens on Patrol
In response to community concerns and an escalation in property crime, Lorne Benson said he reorganized Smithers Citizens on Patrol in 2022.
Benson, a former three-term councillor born and raised in Smithers, was involved when the volunteer-run group launched in the late 1990s following problems with vandalism.
Now he said, issues related to COVID and social distancing have caused displacement, while drugs and mental health are taking a devastating toll.
“It’s a really sad thing to see,” Benson said in an interview. “There’s been more and more people pushed to the margins and the manifestation of that in this community is like what you see in most communities.”
“It’s kind of sad, disheartening to see the town sort of sliding away,” said John McEwen, who feels it’s time to give back.
McEwen, 73, is a lifelong Smithers resident and one of a handful of volunteers who cruise the streets after dark, looking for suspicious activity and reporting any crimes to police.
“I wish I could do more, but you only can do so much,” McEwen told Global News.
“It’s pretty tough to see your day-to-day neighbours start to suffer,” volunteer Sharon Eastabrook said.
Eastabrook said the hardest part of trying to make a difference in her community is seeing the people she knows or has known.
“You see the drug addiction,” she told Global News. “Recently, there was a young lady who passed away who used to be in my living room hanging out with my kids.”
“It’s heartbreaking,” said an emotional McEwen. “I love this town and I have very fond memories of years ago – some of them are starting to slide away and it hurts to see that happen.”
Out of Resources
With no overnight shelter and not enough supportive housing to accommodate those staying in the encampment, the mayor of Smithers is calling on the province for help.
“We have to do better than this,” Gladys Atrill said in an interview.
While BC Housing has acquired a property on Alfred Avenue adjacent to the Town Hall for 40 units of supportive housing, the mayor said the homes for those experiencing or at risk of homelessness are at least a year away.
“When we can do that, we can start shutting this (encampment) down but we can’t shut this down if we have no place for people to go,” Atrill said.
Meantime, the mayor said the town has lobbied for extra RCMP officers.
Currently, Atrill said, the town pays for 11 of the 18 RCMP members at the Smithers detachment, which serves a large geographical area including Telkwa, Wit’at (Fort Babine), and Witset.
“We feel it is truly time for the province to increase its share of police officers to give us more resources in town just to serve that whole big area, plus this community and all the challenges we face here,” Atrill told Global News.
When asked if she felt it was acceptable for municipalities to have to hire private security because they don’t have enough resources to address public safety concerns, B.C.’s minister of public safety said she affirmed her government’s commitment to tackling the challenges of street disorder when she spoke with mayors at the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) Convention in Victoria last month.
“The province is standing up additional resources to ensure that police have the tools that they need to fight violent crime, repeat offenders and street disorder specifically,” Nina Krieger told Global News.
In the meantime, the business community and citizens of Smithers are not giving up on their town.
“I’m not going to get pushed out of town or stop what we’re doing because of this,” said Carter.
“I hold out hope,” added McEwen. “I hold out hope every day that things will change.”
