Victoria Police Board rejects city's request for smaller budget increase

The Victoria Police Department headquarters is shown: April 12, 2019. (CTV Vancouver Island)

The Victoria Police Board has rejected city council's request that it revise its budget proposal for the coming year.

Earlier this month, councillors asked city staff to develop a draft budget for the year that would cap property tax increases at the rate of inflation, which it calculated as 6.96 per cent.

The motion called for staff to ask the police board to draft a new budget at the same rate.

In a letter sent to Mayor Marianne Alto and councillors last week, police board finance committee chair Doug Crowder noted that the council's motion would limit this year's funding increase for the Victoria Police Department to $4,345,000.

The police board had previously requested a 9.6-per-cent increase, or a little more than $6 million.

"Although the board acknowledges the difficult choices council has to make during this inflationary period, the board is still of the position that the budget it has presented is one that meets the legislative requirements under the Police Act to provide adequate and effective policing to the city and Township (of Esquimalt)," Crowder wrote in the letter.

"Therefore, the board is not prepared to amend the budget as requested by council."

Last year, Esquimalt's council voted to end its policing agreement with the VicPD, citing high costs. 

Esquimalt also tried to reject the VicPD's request for additional funding to hire new officers in 2022, but was ordered by the provincial government to pay its share of the cost. 

Victoria City Council could attempt to reduce the police board's budget request against the board's wishes, but that wouldn't necessarily be the end of the process.

When Vancouver attempted to reduce the requested increase to its police department budget in 2021, the department appealed to the province and was successful. 

In his letter, Crowder acknowledges the city council's right to choose not to approve items in the police budget, but warns that choosing which items to cut would be "a difficult decision for council to make independently," because "the impact of doing so may not be obvious."

"For the board to remove items would conflict with our legislative requirement to provide adequate and effective policing; therefore, the board will not preemptively make any adjustments," the letter reads.

"Should council choose to pursue their right to remove budget line items, please accept the board’s offer to work together to identify areas within the budget that, if reduced, would have the least direct operational impact."

The letter concludes by requesting that council adopt the police budget as presented.