Pity the person who has to figure out the budget at VicPD. The province has told Victoria and Esquimalt they have to pay for six new police officers, but Victoria is looking at limiting the department’s budget increase, so it might lose officers, anyway.
Tonia Enger, acting director of the Police Services Division, wrote to the municipalities this week saying they have to shell out the money Chief Del Manak asked for last year. When Manak asked for the additional officers, Esquimalt council squelched the request by refusing to pay its $40,778 share, while Victoria’s approval of its $528,000 share was conditional on Esquimalt approving it first.
The dispute was kicked upstairs to the province, but in the meantime, Manak redeployed all three school-liaison officers, one intelligence officer, one reserve constable and one community services officer to patrol duty.
Although Enger has now backed his request, don’t expect to see those officers sent back to their previous jobs.
For this year, Manak asked for a six per cent increase to add six officers and one civilian. Instead, council limited him to a $1.8-million increase, which effectively cuts $1.1 million or nine officers and civilians.
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins said Thursday that the department shouldn’t be forced to cover the new employer health tax out of its regular budget, which adds about $690,000 back into the mix. Victoria council wants to see a new budget breakdown before it approves even that.
Nevertheless, even though Helps said the councils will have to fund the six officers requested last year, it looks as if the department still won’t have all the officers it asked for.
