The B.C. government is ordering the Township of Esquimalt to pay its share of increases to the Victoria police budget for 2022, after Esquimalt council pushed back on the budget expansion earlier this year.
In March, Esquimalt council voted against a request from VicPD to help fund six more officers and four civilian employees – as well as overtime pay for emergency teams – saying that the municipality already paid a disproportionate amount for policing.
Both Esquimalt and Victoria share policing costs and VicPD requires approval from both councils to increase its budget.
The province, however, has ordered the township to pay $180,000 of the $1.3-million budget increase for this year.
The order comes after Esquimalt and Victoria councils asked the province for a resolution on the issue in April.
On Tuesday, Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins said the municipality would keep a close eye on how its funding is being used, saying that most of the amalgamated police department’s resources go to Victoria.
“We have the highest cost per capita for policing in the region with one of the lowest crime severity indexes,” said Desjardins.
“We’ll be asking for a lot more accountability to the addition of that cost and those officers and make sure they’re also being a benefit to our community,” she said.
The Victoria Police Department headquarters. (CTV News)
In March, when council initially voted against the budget increase, Desjardins said that Esquimalt was paying for overtime work that other municipalities in the region weren’t on the hook for, such as paying for officers to patrol protests in downtown Victoria.
In response, Victoria Police Chief Del Manak said he was “disappointed” by Esquimalt’s decision at the time, saying that the police board completed an “exhaustive budget process” to come up with its budget increase request based on the demand for service it was seeing.
ESQUIMALT EXITING POLICE AGREEMENT
In August, Esquimalt council voted not to renew its police cost-sharing agreement with Victoria, which has been in place since 2003.
The shared framework agreement between the municipalities was up for renewal in December 2023, and the municipality hopes to have a different police service model in place by then.
Esquimalt said it was seeking proposals for different police service models and that it had requested $150,000 from the B.C. government to examine the proposals.
“Both councils and the police board have worked diligently to make the best out of the situation we are in,” said Desjardins at the time.
“The fact remains that two municipalities are making decisions on one budget, regardless of their vastly different needs, and it’s challenging on both sides,” she said.
