VPD training facility pitch based on ‘incorrect information’: Justice Institute of B.C.

A Vancouver Police logo is pictured on a vehicle in Vancouver, on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

The Justice Institute of British Columbia is issuing a warning ahead of a Vancouver city councillor’s motion to ask for more than $1 million in funding for a new police training facility.

In a press release shared with CTV News, the JIBC said, “any delivery of the provincial curriculum outside the established model would require careful review to address impacts for quality assurance, recruit assessment processes, governance, and oversight.”

In May, the JIBC, which develops and delivers the provincially approved municipal police recruit curriculum, will increase its training to three cohorts of 144 recruits annually.

Len Goerke, JIBC’s president and CEO said, municipal police departments’ concerns about the police academy’s training capacity have been resolved.

“The expansion to 432 recruits annually is proceeding as planned and positions JIBC to meet or exceed projected hiring needs across the province,” he said.

‘Duplicate costs’

The release add that, in light of this expansion, “creating a parallel system would duplicate costs, fragment oversight, and introduce unnecessary risks in an attempt to solve a problem that no longer exists.”

On Wednesday, Brian Montague, a former Vancouver Police Department spokesperson and ABC councillor, is tabling a motion called, “Strengthening Public Safety Infrastructure.”

The motion states the number of recruit training seats available annually at the JIBC, “is insufficient to meet the combined demand of independent municipal police services across the province, creating a structural training bottleneck that limits the ability of departments to offset retirements, attrition, and approved staffing growth.”

‘Incorrect information’

Montague’s motion adds that this training capacity constraint has affected the VPD’s ability to onboard new officers, contributed to chronic staffing pressures and increased overtime expenditures.

April van Ert, VP of external relations with the JIBC said, the organization is concerned that the motion Montague has put forward, “is based on incorrect information about the JIBC’s capacity to meet BC’s police recruit training needs.”

Woodward’s Building

For months the VPD have been calling for their own designated training facility, stating that the site of the former London Drugs in the Woodwards building in Gastown would be ideal.

At a Feb. 12 police board meeting, Deputy Chief Const. Howard Chow said the VPD has 165 “true vacancies” and about 150 vacancies attributable to other factors, such as leaves of absence.

Chow added that negotiations are still ongoing about the police academy in the Woodward’s building and that there should be “some sort of presence there to stabilize the area.”

As for costs, Montague’s motion seeks city funding to establish the VPD’s new policing district called District 5 in the Downtown Eastside, at an estimated cost of $2.8 million, and the creation of a VPD Police Training Academy, at an estimated cost of $1.2 million.

Establishing the training academy is contingent upon provincial approval.

In a statement to CTV News, a the Public Safety Ministry said the province has been working with an independent evaluation committee to objectively assess proposals to increase capacity for police training, and will have more to say soon.