The Victoria Police Department is asking for a 9.71 per cent budget increase for 2025 as local municipalities begin discussing their annual financial plans for the coming year.
The request from VicPD, which serves both Victoria and Esquimalt, came before the Esquimalt committee of the whole Nov. 18 when it began discussions of the 2025 provisional budget report, which was first presented to the Victoria Esquimalt Police Board finance committee in October.
In the report, the police board's finance committee chair Elizabeth Cull justified the nearly 10 per cent, or just over $7 million, increase, saying resources are stretched due to an increase in competition for police candidates, a need for enhanced employee wellness supports, space restrictions within the provincial police academy, and recent changes in WorkSafeBC legislation for occupational stress injuries.
"We hear the strong case for support from our residents and local business for an increased street presence," she noted in the report. "The environment has been continuously changing, including an unprecedented number of weeks of continuous protests, ongoing public issues around homelessness and addiction, a recent spike in youth crime, and increasing incidence of cybercrime and major crime investigations."
The report also mentions the 2023 Crime Severity Index, which showed that violent crime increased by 6.1 per cent in Esquimalt and decreased by 9.4 per cent in Victoria; and non-violent crime decreased by 7.8 per cent in Esquimalt and increased by 19.2 per cent in Victoria.
The increase includes a 6.3 per cent, or $4.5 million, increase for "unavoidable costs" like wage increases and the E-Comm 911 levy; another 1.85 per cent, or $1.3 million, is required for VicPD’s share of integrated unit costs; and the remaining increase of 1.56 per cent, or $1.1 million, is due to inflation and "external cost pressures."
The entire budget as it's proposed – though it can and likely will be changed – would carry a close to a three per cent tax increase for Esquimalt residents.
Though Cull didn't attend the Esquimalt meeting to answer specific questions, staff members were able to answer more broad, basic questions about the report, and council members voted unanimously to invite members of the police board and VicPD to attend a later meeting to answer more specific questions, and to discuss the budget further.
Victoria council will have its first discussion on the budget on Thursday, Nov. 21.
