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While crime rates across Canada fell in 2020 mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kelowna still has the second highest crime rate in all of Canada, along with the third highest violent crime rate.
New data released this week by Statistics Canada shows that Kelowna’s police-reported crime rate followed the national average, declining 10 percent from 2019 to 9,665 incidents per 100,000 population. But despite this decline, the Kelowna metropolitan area still has the second highest police-reported crime rate in Canada, alongside Lethbridge with 10,697 incidents per 100,000 residents.
Perhaps even more worrying is the rise in violent crime in the Kelowna area. Kelowna remains the third highest in the country, up 12 percent from 2019 to 1,721 violent incidents per 100,000 population. That puts Kelowna just behind Lethbridge and Moncton.
Kelowna’s Crime Index, a measure that takes into account the extent and severity of crime in a region, was also the third highest in the country.
In addition, Kelowna has by far the highest rate of opioid-related crime of any region in the country. Kelowna was up 67 percent compared to 2019 and recorded 208 opioid-related crimes per 100,000 population last year, more than double the rate of second-placed Lethbridge (97) and more than four times the rate of third-placed Vancouver (43).
“Opioid-related crime was the only specific type of drug that saw an increase in 2020 compared to 2019,” Stats Canada said in its most recent publication, up 34 percent.
“In terms of opioid-related deaths, Western Canada has remained the hardest hit region in the country since 2016, but rates have also increased in other areas, particularly Ontario.”
With many people staying home for many months over the past year, the pandemic had a profound impact on crime across the country. In April 2020, police-reported crime decreased 18 percent compared to April 2019, and for the year as a whole, property crime fell 13 percent nationwide.
But despite the overall decline in crime, Canada saw 56 more homicides last year compared to 2019, a seven percent increase. 22 of the country’s 743 murders last year occurred during the April mass shooting in Nova Scotia – the deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history.
There were three homicides in the Kelowna area in 2020, up from only one in 2019.
The year also saw a significant increase in police-reported hate crimes. Hate crimes against East or Southeast Asian people rose 301 percent, while incidents of hate against indigenous peoples rose 152 percent.
