Photo: contributed
The aftermath of a hit-and-run at a Kelowna business last year.
Statistics Canada has released its annual crime report and things are not looking good in the Central Okanagan.
Metro Kelowna, which includes every community from Lake Country to Peachland, reported a crime rate per 100,000 last year of 11,112.
This is by far the worst crime rate of any census metropolitan area in Canada, and an increase of 10% since 2020. Nationally, the crime rate per 100,000 population increased by just 1% to 5,375 in 2021.
Behind Kelowna, Lethbridge (9,836) and Moncton (9,168) round out the top three cities in the country with the most crimes.
Kelowna recorded the second-highest violent crime rate per 100,000 residents in Canada at 1,980, up 11% in a year, behind only Thunder Bay at 2,134. The national violent crime rate fell seven percent last year to 1,323 per 100,000.
The police-reported crime rate measures only the volume of crimes and does not take into account the seriousness of each case. The Crime Severity Index measures the overall seriousness of crimes by assigning more weight to major crimes.
Kelowna has the second highest crime severity index in the country at 122.3, up 7% from the previous year. Kelowna trails only Lethbridge, which reported a CSI of 128.7. Canada’s national CSI was calculated at 73.7.
Kelowna’s violent crime severity index, which excludes property crimes, ranks the region seventh worst behind cities like Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Sudbury and Saskatoon.
The region experienced large increases in rates of motor vehicle theft (+21%), robbery (+32%) and threats (+14%).
StatsCanada says the increase in Kelowna’s crime severity index can also be attributed to increases in child pornography, mischief and fraud. However, there were decreases in the trafficking, production, import or export of methamphetamine, and identity fraud.
Kelowna also has the second-highest rate of opioid-related crimes in Canada (116 per 100,000 residents), behind only Lethbridge (124) and well above Vancouver (45).
Kelowna’s crime wave beats the provincial trend, with provincial statistics for the Crime Severity Index (92.9) and the crime rate (7,486) dropping five and four per cent last year , respectively.
Castanet has reached out to the Kelowna RCMP for comment.