Granted Victoria and Esquimalt pay more but Victoria’s extra cost is related to their being the core tourist area and government centre of the province. Overall, policing costs in the CRD (excluding the RCMP) is pretty much on par with other cities and towns and across Canada. The RCMP cannot be included as that force operates on special agreements that make it nearly impossible to compare costs between the Federal service and local city/municipal departments. Also, RCMP services are partially funded by the citizens of the cities and towns who pay for their own police.

Because Victoria takes in the lions-share of tourist dollars and government business, that requires extra policing. For that, they are well rewarded in terms of dollars coming into the city proper. If the City does not budge dollars commensurate with the service requirement, they need to make adjustments by charging more to those who gain from the influx of dollars. Also, entering into shared service agreements is one of the quickest, cheapest and most efficient methods of accomplishing that. Amalgamation is the most costly and inefficient and would, in the long run, begin to drain resources from other areas.

On average we have about 500 sworn municipal officers around the CRD and they come at a total cost of $504 million. That works out to $200,000 per sworn member (civilian members are considered part of the service included in the sworn member numbers). That’s pretty close to the average across Canada and a rate that continues to provide an excellent level of service to our citizens.

Regards,

Harold McNeill
Det/Sgt. (Retired, Oak Bay PD)

the provincial subsidy makes the cost of victoria policing look much higher in comparison than they really are.

also when victoria arrest somebody many of the felons are not resident of Victoria but from the other 12 munis yet victoria residents pays all the costs for their crimes.