‘Backbone of the economy’: Small businesses face major crime challenges in Western Canada

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Last year, a car drove through the window of Gordon Sauck’s electronics store, Innovative Audio, in the Newton neighbourhood of Surrey, B.C., causing an estimated $60,000 to $80,000 in damages. 

Located minutes away from Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Surrey campus, the store has served the community for 17 years and boasts the largest vintage audio collection in the Metro Vancouver area. 

Sauck believes if his numbers are correct, Innovative Audio is the busiest audio repair shop in Western Canada. 

The store has made the decision not to renew its lease when it comes up in a year and a half, citing issues related to crime and affordability. Sauck is also planning to leave the area and has put his house up for sale. 

“I don’t want to see it go, but I don’t have that choice if I don’t have the revenue to make it work,” Sauck says. “We need $25,000 to $30,000 a month just to pay our expenses …. That’s a lot for a small business.”

Small businesses make up 98 per cent of business in British Columbia and are often referred to as the backbone of the economy, yet nearly half of the province’s small businesses have had to navigate hurdles with crime and safety. 

A survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) found 57 per cent of small businesses in B.C. were impacted by crime or community safety challenges last year — slightly higher than the average in Western Canada.

“People love to throw the term backbone of the economy around a lot, but I think oftentimes it can get a little diluted. People forget just how important they actually are,” says Emily Boston, senior policy analyst for CFIB. 

“Small businesses are connected in so many ways to our communities, and they’re not just random strangers, they’re our friends, our neighbours, and people that are doing their best to make our local communities better places to live and thrive.”

Crime negatively impacts reputation, which is critical for small businesses success. Over the years, operating in a “high crime” area has had a direct impact on Innovative Audio’s sales, Sauck says. 

“If customers know they’re coming to a high crime area, … sooner or later those customers are going to say, ‘You know what? I’m not going to go down to this area. If you’re getting busted into, then why should I even park my car here?’ We have noticed a huge decrease in sales over the years because of this specific thing.”

The most recent break-in at the store happened last year, when someone allegedly smashed their door and took “bizarre” items like a small label printer and a few dollars in the petty cash, skipping over valuable audio equipment. 

The effects of robberies like this do not just reflect the content stolen but the aftermath of filing police reports, loss of business, and dealing with insurance companies. 

Innovative Audio rents out items as movie props that are displayed in its front window. When these are damaged or stolen, the store no longer gets income from renting them. Sauck says insurance will rarely pay him the full amount of what they are worth.

Due to the amount of break-ins that have happened, he says his business often opted to pay out of pocket to fix a broken window, for example, rather than call insurance. 

Business owners, including Sauck, are taking preventative measures to protect themselves, such as by installing security cameras, putting up bars on their windows, and not keeping cash on premises. However, Boston says we have to be careful not to put the onus of crime on the victims. 

“When a crime happens, people look to the victim and say, ‘What could you have done to prevent this from happening to you?’ And the reality is that these small business owners are just trying to operate their stores and provide goods and services to the community,” Boston says. 

Author and small business expert Beverlee Rasmussen says the reason small businesses are targeted for crime trickles down from many overlapping issues in urban areas, including economic downturn, affordability, and the toxic drug crisis. 

“The fix is looking at the root cause: the economy and lack of affordability in British Columbia, safe drug supply, and mental health,” Rasmussen says. 

It’s a cycle where businesses need to sustain economic health and alleviate some of these issues, yet with high costs, a slow economy, and crime hitting business, the operations nearly half of Canadians rely on for employment struggle to stay open. 

Rasmussen says if a business has been broken into three times, it is likely to close. 

“What happens when those businesses shut down [is] we have a huge number of people losing their jobs .… Now they have to give up their apartment …. Maybe originally they were paying $1,000 a month, now they have to move somewhere else to get a job where they’re going to pay $2,400 a month because the rents have gone up,” Rasmussen says. 

“Small business is such an integrated part of everything we touch.”

Policing frustrations

Boston says the most surprising part of the CFIB survey was the hesitance of these business owners to file a police report, with the most common reason being the belief that it wouldn’t make a difference. 

Small business owners distrusting the system runs at a huge majority, she says. In the federation’s first survey in 2023, 55 per cent of respondents agreed they were hesitant to file a police report. This number jumped to 83 per cent the following year.

“That shows that small businesses not only have been dealing with these challenges, but are frustrated to the point that they recognize there’s not a lot they can do outside of their control,” Boston adds. 

Collectively, Sauck says Innovative Audio has been broken into approximately 10 times since opening in 2008, with no one brought to justice or police followups on any of the cases. 

Sauck still files a police report every time a break-in occurs at his business for insurance purposes and just in case they are able to bring about justice. But he has “absolutely zero” faith in the system. 

“I know it’s a horrible thing to say, but all you have to do is just sit on the side of the road for an hour and you can see everything that happens,” Sauck says. “It is absolutely horrendous.”

One of his frustrations with the criminal justice system are alleged offenders caught in the act or arrested and subsequently released the following day. 

On Nov. 29, the Surrey Police Service took over policing in Newton from the RCMP, but during the time of the break-ins and property damage at Innovative Audio, Newton was still under RCMP jurisdiction. 

Sgt. Kris Clark, senior media relations officer for the RCMP, says alleged offenders — even when caught red-handed — are released while the investigation is ongoing and are only kept in custody if it is a high-priority case, such as if the suspect can be justified as a danger to the public or is at risk of fleeing.

“You’re innocent until proven guilty, so you’re released pending a future court date .… Then upon conviction and sentencing, maybe they will be given a custodial sentence,” Clark says. “There’s a process that needs to take place, and certainly we can’t just detain them indefinitely until that trial takes place.”

With respect to convictions, Clark says once evidence is gathered the Crown conducts an assessment to see if there is enough evidence to bring someone to justice. He adds in cases of break-and-enters into businesses, investigations can be complex and sometimes there is not enough evidence to convict someone — even with cameras. 

“There are certainly barriers with respect to these types of investigations, as with any investigation,” Clark says. “Potentially, if you can find a methodology that’s consistent across multiple break-ins … you could tie the others to that same person, but you would also need additional evidence.”

Another one of Sauck’s frustrations is with the lack of police patrolling — especially at night. He says while 10 years ago it wasn’t uncommon to see police vehicles, now he believes it is rare to see any. 

When comparing the first quarter of 2023 to 2024, property crimes in Newton fell only three per cent compared to 12 to 22 per cent in all other Surrey districts. Newton was also the only district to see an increase in business break-ins, which was 17 in the first quarter of 2023 and 37 in the first quarter one year later. 

Clark could not provide trends or statistics with respect to patrols in Newton, but he says this is a common complaint among the general public, despite efforts. 

“We’ll do daily patrols, even hourly patrols, and [this] complaint is consistent,” Clark says. “The police are there, they’re always there. I don’t have enough information to really refute [the complaint], but I know that anecdotally, based on my experience, the police are always out there.”

Sauck says he has also been disappointed with slow responses from police, adding that it can take up to three hours for officers to arrive on scene when he has called in after a break-in, which he calls “pathetic.” This has contributed to his lost feelings of credibility with the police department. 

Clark says it is a matter of priority. Calls where a person is in danger, or involving violence, and active cases are given higher attention than calls where a break-in has already occurred and police are going to assess the scene. 

For Sauck, the solution is not more external support but improving policing, crime reduction, and affordability so stores like his can stay in business safely. However, he has little confidence this can happen. 

“Crime will never be reduced. If anything, it’s getting worse,” he says. “There’s nothing that can be done. If there’s nothing following up on the justice side of things, it makes no difference if the criminals are just going to come out the very next day, then why bother.”