Victoria police chief 'disappointed' after Esquimalt rejects request for more funding

A Victoria police vehicle outside a home in Esquimalt, B.C. (CTV News)

Councillors for the Township of Esquimalt have voted down a budget request from the Victoria Police Department that would have funded six additional officers and four civilian employees, saying the municipality already pays disproportionately more for policing than it gets in return.

Council declined to provide more funding for the 2022 police budget, with the exception of funding for restorative justice, the township said in a media release Tuesday.

The Victoria police budget requires the approval of both the Victoria and Esquimalt councils as both communities share the policing costs of the amalgamated force.

But Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins says the township's crime rate has been in decline in recent years while Victoria's has risen in proportion to its population.

"We're very different communities," Desjardins said in an interview Tuesday. "We're willing to pay our fair share, but we're not willing to supplement somebody else's share."

In its decision, the township cited a September 2020 review of policing costs in Victoria and Esquimalt by the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, which found Esquimalt paid approximately 14.7 per cent of VicPD's budget.

The report recommended Esquimalt's share of the budget be reduced to 13.67 per cent, which took effect this year, according to the township.

However, Esquimalt says the cost still does not align with the municipality's demand for police services.

"We know that overtime and other costs are increasing due to the number of protests we're seeing downtown," Desjardins said. "We just don't feel that Esquimalt should have to pay for those extras because we're the only department amalgamated with Victoria."

Victoria police Chief Del Manak is "disappointed" by the decision taken by Esquimalt council, he said in a statement Tuesday.

"Our police board, over an exhaustive budget process spanning several months, arrived at this budget based on the best available information relating to resource demands, operational requirements, and public safety trends," Manak said.

"Personnel shortages and the demands on our people are only mounting, and this pressure is affecting our ability to provide the community policing that our citizens expect."

'WE'RE ALREADY OVER-RESOURCED'

Esquimalt says it does not get to make operational decisions about how the VicPD budget is used.

"The report also cited that we had more officers than were required to provide adequate policing for Esquimalt," Desjardins added. "Because of that, Esquimalt council felt that to add more resources when we're already over-resourced, according to this report, just doesn't make fiscal sense for our community."

According to the municipality, Esquimalt paid $8.4 million for policing in 2021, or approximately $479 per resident.

"Public safety is top of mind, as is appropriate spending for our services," the mayor added. "Our goal is to be adequately policed while fiscally responsible to our residents and businesses."

The township says its staff will be surveying Esquimalt residents over the next two months to determine their level of satisfaction with the amalgamated VicPD arrangement before the arrangement comes up for renewal in July.

The 10 additional VicPD positions sought in the budget request included a business intelligence analyst, a records specialist, two front-desk workers, a cultural liaison officer, a cybercrime officer, two assertive community treatment officers and two co-responder team officers to be accompanied by Island Health workers.