April 13 Council Notes: Mobile Integrated Crisis Response, Slow Streets Program, and Long-Term Care

In 2015, Langley City Council adopted the “Community Crime Prevention Strategic Plan.” One of the action items in that plan was to call on the province to expand the Car 67 program to our community. This program is now called the Mobile Integrated Crisis Response program. This program pairs a police officer and a health care professional who respond to calls when people are in mental health distress. The goal of this program is to reduce repeated police calls for service for the same person and instead provide people with an appropriate, continuous health-based response.

A recommendation from Langley City’s Citizens’ Assembly called for continued provincial advocacy as well as for piloting a Mobile Integrated Crisis Response program in Langley. The City will continue to advocate for provincial funding. On Monday, Council passed a motion to include, in the 2027 budget consideration process, a one-year pilot program for a Mobile Integrated Crisis Response team, with an effectiveness evaluation report of the pilot. Based on the pilot's outcome, it could support a business case for the province to provide ongoing funding for this program, as they do in other communities.

Council also recently endorsed Transportation 2050, Langley City’s Transportation Plan. One of the priority planning actions in the report was to develop a Slow Streets Program for neighbourhood streets. A Slow Streets program, among other things, includes lowering the speed limit to 30 km/h on local side streets. As such, Council passed a motion to include developing a Slow Streets Program in the 2027 budget consideration process.

I hear from many residents about their concerns with the health system. While the health care system, including hospitals, is a provincial responsibility, Council has advocated on behalf of residents on matters we regularly hear about, even if it is outside our authority to take direct action. Back in 2024, the province announced a commitment to fund 300 new long‑term care beds at Langley Memorial Hospital. The provincial government has recently reduced its capital projects funding in the near term, so Council passed a motion asking me to write a letter to the province to inquire into the status of the announced long-term care beds at Langley Memorial Hospital.