Esquimalt rejects additional funding request for officers it says it doesn’t need

Esquimalt council has voted to not increase funding for new officers and staff in the Victoria-Esquimalt police budget.

On Thursday, Mayor Barb Desjardins said Esquimalt would see “minimal to no benefit” from the new positions—which include four new officers and three new civilian staff—many of which “would be specific to Victoria’s needs,”she said. She wanted to be clear that she was not looking to reduce the portion of the police budget they already pay but to simply maintain it.

On Tuesday, council unanimously moved a motion directing staff to send a letter to the Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board and a copy to the City of Victoria of council's motion to not provide its share of funding for an additional seven staff requested and for “Late Night, Great Night” patrols around Victoria’s bars and clubs.

In 2023, Victoria agreed to fund a late-night weekend patrol of the city's downtown core—but only for the coming year and within existing operating hours.

If the program were to continue in 2025, patrols may need to be extended through  the night if Victoria Coun. Matt Dell is successful in his bid to revive an old bylaw allowing for some downtown venues to remain open until 6am.

Currently bars and clubs close at 2am to align with alcohol sale laws. In his appeal to his colleagues in council he said “it would be really cool” if Victoria could develop a small late-night dance sector, because, “there's always people out there who are into that type of thing, whether that be someone who just wants to party all-night long, or maybe a shift worker who doesn't get off shift until 10 at night, and they want to go out and stay out for a little longer.”

Whether these hours end up being extended, Desjardins takes issue with the fact that the bulk of patrolling happens late at night in downtown Victoria and doesn’t impact Esquimalt.

She pointed out that the only pub in her municipality closes by 11pm and there had been no significant challenge around the pub’s closing time. That being the case, she said providing $31,000 for a late-night bar-patrol program in Victoria wasn’t going to benefit Esquimalt.

Prior to asking for council’s vote, Desjardins wanted to make clear that the decision was not a reflection on the service that was being provided.

“VicPD has provided and continues to provide excellent service to the township of Esquimalt. It is a challenge with the governance and the reflection of the uniqueness of Esquimalt with regards to crime severity from the City of Victoria and our very different needs.”

Esquimalt has made other movies to gain service independence from its neighbour.

The municipality broke ground on its own public safety building last year. The three-storey build at 500 Park Place was scaled back significantly from its original design due to budget constraints. Fire Rescue and Services will move back into its former site once the building is complete along with an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and some space for Capital Regional District offices.

Esquimalt has been looking to end VicPD contract for years

This is not the first time Esquimalt has declined to approve a budget increase for new police positions.

The shared police force has been funded jointly since 2002, however, in 2019, the province had to step in after Esquimalt council rejected, in 2018, the hire of six additional officers for VicPD.

Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth told the press at the time “sometimes the kids can't play in the sandbox and dad has to come in and say this is how it's gonna be.”

In 2022, council again rejected a request from Victoria police to fund 10 new positions.

Desjardins’ argument in 2022–similar to the one she made this week—referred to a 2020 Ministry of Public Safety study that indicated Esquimalt’s reduced calls for service and low crime rate meant it was paying for services it was not receiving and did not need.

“Council felt that, given that report came out two years ago and we still have more resources than we need, we couldn’t in all conscience add more resources,” she said then.

Data from VicPD’s final quarter Community Safety Report Card for Esquimalt bears out Desjardins’ rationale.

In 2024, 35,403 dispatch calls went out in Victoria and only 2,876 in Esquimalt, representing only 7% of the total of 38,442 calls. In the last quarter alone, only 704 dispatch call outs were made in Esquimalt versus 9,021 in Victoria.

In 2022, Esquimalt was paying 14.7% of VicPD's budget. These are tougher, more uncertain times and the mayor said she already had to make some cuts to its  municipal budget. She did not include in it any new requests for staff.

The police board’s finance committee chair Elizabeth Cull made an appeal to Victoria council last month for the additional staff based on “the need for more police visibility downtown.” In her presentation to Victoria council she said the department was understaffed and that to not increase the budget would mean jeopardizing community safety.

She said that 97% of the budget proposed for 2025 is just to maintain current service levels.

At the same meeting, Chief Del Manak said a budget boost was required to gap-fill, explaining that, on any given day, 20 of the department’s 257 offers are not available for deployment because they're in training, while another 15 to 20 officers may not be available because of stress, injuries, parental leave, or other leaves.

VicPD is seeking $79.14M this year, an increase of $7M from last year. Of that total, Victoria would pay $68.3M and Esquimalt, $10.8M, which is roughly 15% of the total police budget.

Victoria’s portion of the additional funding request of $925K would be $800K. It was the police board’s hope that the other $125K would come from Esquimalt.

While the motion not to pay it will have to be ratified by council on Monday, it looks like that is not going to happen.