Vancouver City Council approves plan for hiring 200 police officers, nurses

Vancouver City Council approves public safety strategy of hiring 200 police officers and nurses

Vancouver Police patrol car in the Downtown Eastside. (Shutterstock)

As expected, Vancouver City Council has approved the plan of hiring 200 additional frontline public safety workers, including 100 new additional Vancouver Police Department (VPD) officers and 100 new Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) mental health nurses.

This 100/100 police officer and nurse program was a key promise made by the ABC Vancouver party during the civic election campaign as one of the strategies to effectively tackle public safety and disorder issues, and respond to the high volume of non-emergency mental health calls.

A large portion of these labour resources is expected to go towards expanding the existing Car 87/88 “Mental Health Cars” program of pairing a police officer with a mental health nurse in plainclothes and in an unmarked vehicle, as well as potentially the VPD Mental Health Unit.

ABC councillor Lisa Dominato’s member motion was approved along party lines, with all six councillors of the governing ABC party attending the public meeting voting in support.

OneCity councillor Christine Boyle and Green Party councillors Adriane Carr and Pete Fry voted against the motion’s main components, but they were supportive of some of the amendments made to the motion, including requesting the provincial government to direct its new Peer Assisted Care Teams to Vancouver.

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This strategy of hiring additional police officers and mental health nurses to work together as response teams is supported by the provincial government — strongly made evident by Premier David Eby’s new Safer Communities Action Plan, which was announced this past Sunday.

But it remains to be seen whether the provincial government will provide ongoing annual operating cost subsidies for the municipal government to cover at least a portion of the new frontline workers tackling a provincial and national issue with the Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside as its epicentre.

An approved amendment by Dominato to her own motion today directed City staff to allocate a “full block” of $8 million in funding in the municipal government’s 2023 operating budget towards hiring the 100 additional police officers. This is up from the previous proposed 2023 budget of $4.5 million for this expense, and is inclusive of any provincial or federal government funding that may be made available at a later date.

The same amendment also directed up to $8 million in municipal funding to VCH for the mental health nurses, inclusive of any potential future funding from senior governments. This is up from $4.5 million in the original motion.

Both workforce expenditures — reaching up to $16 million combined — would come from the City’s general revenue stabilization reserve, with the final funding identified by City Council’s forthcoming process for determining the 2023 operating budget. During the civic election campaign, the estimated cost was $20 million.

Earlier this week, the Vancouver Police Board outlined its proposed 2023 VPD operating budget for City Council’s approval at a later date — a request for $383.1 million or an increase of 11.2% over the 2022 restated budget. This includes the cost of carrying out City Council’s direction of hiring 100 new additional officers, which would grow the force to 1,448 sworn officers.

The VPD estimates it would cost up to $15.7 million to reach the full complement of 100 additional officers in 2023. It should be noted that this is an annual operating cost figure, and it includes hiring 20 more civilian staff on top of the 100 officers.

During today’s City Council meeting, City manager Paul Mochrie suggested the annual operating cost figure of $15.7 million would be split between 2023 and 2024, given the timeframe that is likely needed to ramp up and reach 100 officers. Therefore, $8 million for 2023’s budget could be sufficient.

It was also previously suggested some of the officer numbers could come from the Surrey Police Services (SPS), given that the new Surrey City Council has voted to rewind on the SPS and keep the BC RCMP. A few dozen SPS officers were previously with the VPD.

“We know there will be different hiring timelines and processes, and training periods. We know sometimes we will be hiring new officers, and others may be experienced, they may come from different sources. Council does not want to get down to the details of operations,” said Kirby-Yung.

“It’s important that we take action. We had a loud and clear mandate on moving forward with this piece, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Carr shared her concerns about the program’s cost, and whether the City would have to reduce the budget for other services to make up the equivalent of a 2% operating budget increase. She also questioned whether the municipal government should be covering the cost of healthcare workers, which is traditionally a provincial responsibility.

“It is solely the responsibility of the provincial government to fund healthcare professionals for the most part. I believe this is a very slippery slope, I’ve heard many comments in this Council chambers over the years about whether or not we’re exceeding our jurisdiction to fund certain things that should be the jurisdiction of senior governments,” said Carr.

ABC councillor Brian Montague, who was previously a VPD constable and spokesperson, asserted the need to ramp up both policing and mental health nurses. According to Montague, 14,000 calls that are sent to the VPD involve some sort of mental health issue, with 80% involving some harm or danger that necessitates a police response, and 12% involving weapons. A quarter (26%) of the calls to VPD are also from healthcare professionals requesting the presence of police officers for their own personal safety when dealing with individuals experiencing homelessness, mental health, and/or addictions issues.

“Like it or not, police need to be part of this solution,” said Montague. “In order to solve a problem, we have to come at it from all different angles. This is a collaborative approach, and I think it’s the right direction, and it’s supported by the provincial government.”

ABC councillor Lenny Zhou added: “Is this the only solution? Of course not. It’s one solution to a complex issue, and it’s a very good first step. Because of all the victims in the past, what are the potential victims if we do not pass this motion?”

Last week, as one of its first major policy measures, the ABC-led City Council also approved a member motion directing City staff to create a draft multi-faceted action plan for urgent measures to support Chinatown and its struggling businesses and cultural organizations.

Additionally, today, City Council also officially killed the municipal government’s planning process for implementing road tolls for the downtown Vancouver peninsula and the Central Broadway Corridor.

The 100/100 police officer and nurse program, effective relief and support for Chinatown, and putting an end to the “road tax” were all key election campaign promises made by ABC.

“We are very pleased to see swift action to address the public safety concerns shared by members of the public and business owners alike,” said Bridgitte Anderson, president and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, in a statement shortly after Tuesday’s vote by City Council.

“This investment represents a welcome response to the increase in vandalism and violent attacks we have experienced in the last two years, which has negatively affected both our community and our reputation as a safe, welcoming city. Collaboration between the city, the VPD, and Vancouver Coastal Health, improves the overall well-being of our community, through programs like Car 87/88.”

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