Business owners voice growing frustration as repeat-offender initiative rolls out
NANAIMO — Frustration is mounting among some Nanaimo business owners who say they are still paying the price from property crime despite the province’s recent expansion of a repeat-offender program.
Longtime bartender Sonia Komen, owner of The Nanaimo Bar, told reporters the cumulative toll of vandalism, break-ins and two incidents involving a "smashed-in" front door over the past decade have pushed her to speak publicly about the issue. Komen welcomed the June announcement that the province would roll out the Chronic Property Offending Intervention Initiative (C-POII), but she says the changes have not produced visible results.
“It’s not working, because they’re not taking the necessary steps to make it work,”
Komen said her frustration intensified after an incident on July 26, when her daughter’s car was broken into and about $800 of belongings were stolen from a gym bag. She criticised the police response, saying investigators did not take fingerprints from the vehicle — a decision she worries will undermine the point of a program focused on tracking repeat offenders.
Nanaimo RCMP Insp. Donovan Tait confirmed the car-theft investigation is underway but emphasised that policing units sometimes must make difficult choices about allocating forensic resources. He did not dispute the facts of the incident but outlined the operational reality officers face when prioritizing forensic team deployments across cases.
Two provincial programs now blended in Nanaimo
The city has hosted a pilot of the Repeat Violent Offending Intervention Initiative (ReVOII) since 2023. The province has now expanded C-POII and, according to government figures provided in a media release, the two initiatives are operating as a blended program locally.
| Program | Number supervised in Nanaimo |
|---|---|
| C-POII | 15 |
| ReVOII | 30 |
| Total | 45 |
The ministry told media that violent crime in Nanaimo is trending downward and is now below the national average. A ministry spokesperson cautioned that the benefits of the C-POII model will take time to appear and pointed to the positive results observed from similar approaches elsewhere.
Local businesses seek clearer results and faster action
For business owners such as Komen, however, assurances about long-term trends offer little comfort when they must manage immediate losses and repeated damage to their premises. The Nanaimo Bar had been chosen as the site for a June announcement about the program’s expansion, placing Komen in the unusual position of both endorsing the initiative publicly and later expressing disappointment with its early implementation.
- Business impact: Owners report continued vandalism and theft despite policy changes.
- Police resources: Investigators must balance forensic capacity across many files, sometimes limiting evidence collection.
- Program timeline: Officials say meaningful change under C-POII will take time to materialize.
Police and ministry officials framed C-POII as a targeted, evidence-based response that concentrates supervision and supports on a relatively small cohort of repeat property offenders. Komen and other local entrepreneurs argue the program must translate more quickly into arrests, charges and prosecutions to deter repeat offending and restore business confidence.
The debate reflects a familiar tension for growing West Coast communities: balancing measured, long-term interventions that address root causes of crime with the urgent need for immediate enforcement and prevention to protect storefronts, patrons and public spaces. For now, Nanaimo residents and business owners will be watching whether the blended C-POII/ReVOII approach produces the promised drop in repeat property offending and — crucially for those on the front lines — whether frontline policing decisions change to support that outcome.
