The Victoria Police Department will be able to avoid layoffs, but in a budget plan approved by Victoria councillors Thursday, the department will have to reduce the amount of money it adds to retirement and capital-replacement reserve funds.
After months of back and forth with Police Chief Del Manak, councillors approved a plan for the Victoria and Esquimalt police board on a budget that includes a 3.2 per cent funding increase.
Manak called council’s decision “bittersweet.”
“I’m very pleased that council has passed a motion that does not result in any layoffs or elimination of police or CUPE [civilian] staff positions,” Manak said.
“But I’m still disappointed that they are forcing us to pay the employer health tax, unlike any other city department. So that still to me is unfair, in my opinion.”
Manak had maintained he would have to cut nine civilian positions if council continued to insist that his department pay the $690,000 tab for B.C.’s new employer health tax. He had asked that, as with other city departments, the tax not be part of the police core budget.
But council rejected that request and instead recommended that Manak find budget savings by reducing allocations to a couple of reserve funds.
Two provincial decisions have complicated the police budget. One is the health tax. The other is a ruling by the provincial director of police services that six new officers Manak requested last year must be hired.
Costs of those officers for this year are estimated at $303,000. The department currently has 243 officers.
After initial pushback from council, Manak and the police board shaved about $212,000 from his initial budget proposal.
On Thursday, councillors agreed to recommendations from Coun. Ben Isitt that included those savings, but also reduced a proposed $700,000 allocation to the retirement reserve to $400,000 this year and cut a proposed $1.56 million transfer to the capital-replacement reserve fund to $756,000.
“To support equitable treatment of different departments doesn’t mean treating them identically,” Isitt said.
“I think this recognizes that VicPD has by far the most substantial resources of any city department — in excess of $54 million or $55 million proposed for this year, so the department is best positioned to identify savings.”
Isitt said that adjustments to the police budget will have the effect of reducing the city’s projected property tax increase to 3.9 per cent from 4.3 per cent.
Mayor Lisa Helps argued against the recommendations, noting that council gave clear direction to all departments that the new health tax be funded separately from the base budget.
Paring back contributions to the reserve funds is not fiscally prudent and the retirement reserve is already underfunded, she said.
Coun. Laurel Collins said it’s important to note that the city is not reducing the police budget but providing a substantial budget increase, equivalent to the percentage increase given Vancouver police.
“I do think that we should be able to, kind of, balance the books and maintain staffing with this level of a budget increase,” Collins said. “If you look on a per capita basis, we are spending the most of any Canadian municipality [on police]. It boggles my mind, personally, that in Victoria, we are spending the most per capita of any Canadian municipality.”
Coun. Marianne Alto blamed the province for the budget difficulties.
“I’m extremely frustrated at being put in a position as a local decision maker to have to deal with what are essentially two provincially imposed costs over which we have no control,” Alto said.
Manak will present budget scenarios to Esquimalt councillors on April 8.
