Jobs will be lost and community safety could be compromised if Victoria council insists the Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board cut more than $2 million from its 2025 budget.
That was the message delivered Thursday to council by Elizabeth Cull, the board’s finance committee chair, as she presented the police budget to council.
“We don’t put things in our budget that we don’t think are essential and we certainly don’t put things in our budget so that it’s easy to take them out later in case we get pushed too hard,” Cull said. “We’ve pared this down to what we think is absolutely necessary and nothing more.”
Cull said a $2-million budget cut could not be accomplished without laying off staff and police officers, or “without being able to meet the demands that in the last half hour I’ve heard you talk so passionately about.”
Those include more police visibility downtown, increased bike and foot patrols, more community outreach and making traffic enforcement a priority.
Police are seeking $79.14 million this year, up $7 million from last year. Victoria’s share of that budget would be $68.3 million, with Esquimalt paying the balance.
Donna Phillips, the police board’s director of financial services, noted 97 per cent of the budget is committed to maintaining current service levels, about 1.5 per cent for capital expenditures and the balance for new resources.
The board is requesting about $925,000 in new funding — $800,000 from Victoria and the balance from Esquimalt — to cover the cost of four new police officers and three new civilian staff.
The city asked the board to look for cuts to the police budget as it grapples with a potential 12.17 per cent increase to property taxes in 2025 — the largest hike in Victoria in more than 10 years.
Mayor Marianne Alto said council has asked staff to report back on what the city’s operating budget would look like if property-tax increases were capped at four to seven per cent.
The draft budget includes a $365.6-million operating budget and a $94.6-million capital budget. If it’s is adopted next spring, the typical residential property could face a $376-property tax increase and a typical business could see a $1,000 increase.
At Esquimalt council this week, Coun. Duncan Cavens questioned the need to increase VicPD services for the next two years, given the township’s possible move toward its own standalone police service.
“If we are embarking down this path to split off from VicPD, is this really the right time strategically to be increasing more positions, more services?” he asked.
Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins said she had concerns about how VicPD policing of protests is funded, noting the majority of protests do not occur in Esquimalt.
— With a file from Michael John Lo
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