I am writing in response to Victoria’s policing policies - making children pay for Chief Del Manak’s accounting judgement while actual crime rates are falling.
It must be a municipal election year, since Victoria Police are once again whining to the provincial government because Esquimalt is not allowing them to have their way. Seems like just yesterday Victoria demanded the Liberal provincial government to force Esquimalt to break up our cross trained fire/police department, whether Esquimalt wanted to keep the officers or not. (This was years before Mr. Ford interfered in Ontario municipal affairs. Please note, Provincial Liberals will probably never recover votes from Esquimalt.). Victoria has not acknowledged the benefits they received and the loss Esquimalt has to endure. Esquimalt was only one of two known Canadian integrated fire/police services, and the envy of many other cities who knew of it.
Imagine how much more effective Victoria services would be, if they could get along well enough to meld their services. Thank you, Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins for voting against the Victoria position of hiring more officers to accommodate the current fentinal deaths in Victoria. These tragic death’s are obviously a provincial government caused medical problem, being handed off to the municipal levels to save the province paying for providing health care, rehab centres and counselling. How much more could be accomplished by the police departments, if people would call them when they know someone is openly selling fentinal, than to wait and watch people die after they have used this fatal drug. Thank you again, Mayor Desjardins for your courageous and intelligent response to Victoria’s demand for more money at a time when crime rates are actually falling. Having lived as a tax paying homeowner in both Victoria and Esquimalt, I can really appreciate Esquimalt’s open, friendly and sensibly run municipality. I am old, and hopefully will die before we have forced amalgamation of our communities.
M. Holden
Victoria
