Garbage Collection

Nothing reminds us more about the purpose of municipal services than garbage collection.

So Victoria is now doing a survey of their residents to see what they want to do about it. Of course this also ties into recycling which is another form of garbage collection. Dean Fortin wants to get organics out of the waste stream.

In all of this Fortin is quoted as saying the biggest issue at the CRD is whether it is a private sector service of a public sector service. Seems we have both in our cities. Some people have backyard pick up some do not. There are different services in different areas.

This is not right. No one can convincingly say that the people of Saanich want something different than those in Colwood. There will be some in both areas who want what the other has. The reality is that we all live in the same area; we dump our waste in the same water and landfill. If we move five miles to a different house we should expect to get the same service we had before.
Whether it is private or public, there must be a cost savings to having the same service in the whole region. If not the whole region, at least the four core municipalities and the WestShore.

5 years and a lot of money, wasted on traffic project

The Victoria Regional Transit Commission, the City of Victoria, the Municipality of Saanich, BC Transit, and the Ministry of Transportation, seem to have wasted up to $3 million. Five years ago they started a project to create priority for buses along Douglas Street. They spent money but then due to there being no one to coordinate between the players, what looks like a simple matter fell through the cracks.

The equipment that was installed is now useless and out of date. The money wasted. Now there is a “new group” with representatives from “all jurisdictions” working to make the plan work, with additional costs and after years of delay.

So, if we were amalgamated, we would have one city, and the Ministry of Transportation. Two organizations working on this project instead of five.
We would not need a Victoria Regional Transit Commission and BC Transit can just transfer their mandate to the City, which would be able to run the busses as is done in many other cities. Even if BC Transit were to remain, we would still cut down on the bureaucracy which clearly in this case lost us all a great deal of money and delayed for years something that was presumably of benefit to the region.

Traffic restrictions are different on either side of City Boarders

There are roads which go between municipalities, in case you did not notice. It recently became apparent that the rules of the roads will change once a vehicle hits one of the many invisible barriers.

In the case of one road between Central Saanich and Saanich, trucks over 5500 kilograms can drive up to the boarder in Central Saanich, but cannot drive along the same road once it reaches Saanich.

Due to a problem for the use of some land in Central Saanich, the counsel there agreed that it was appropriate to make some changes to the road which approaches the land, currently owned by the Rendle family. However, to access the road which Central Saanich is changing, one has to drive on Saanich Roads. Saanich counsel of course has neither interest nor incentive to do anything.

Why should Saanich care? It will cost money to make any changes and simply benefit a neighboring municipality.

Saanich did care enough to pay for new signs to be posted, making it clear that it was illegal for large trucks to use their roads.

This is not the way to manage a city and its roads. The capital needs to amalgamate.

Amalgamation May Help Get People Out to Vote

The fact that fewer than one in four vote in municipal elections is a problem. It is a problem caused by the fact that few care about a small community organization.

Think about how many people actually come out and vote for the directors or help organize community organizations such as BARA or the North Quadra Land Use Protection Association. As a percentage of the population it is very small.

Our municipalities are the same. They are in fact not much more than residential associations. The CRD deals with some of the bigger issues. This may be a bit exaggerated but the point is clear. Without a regional government which we all know affects the whole region, we are not going to get too excited about voting.

Instead of 91 elected representatives making in most cases a nominal part time income, there could be 12 full time positions paying a “living wage”.

That might create interest in the campaign.

If we want more interest in what the local government is doing and who is doing it, a step in the right direction will be to focus on fewer positions and without doubt fewer competent candidates.

An entire community focused on the same issues can create interest.

If you live in Saanich and work in Victoria with people from Langford, do you really care what the issues are in the Langford election? Not really. Are you going to talk about them, and encourage each other to get out and vote? No.

Now if we were all concerned about the same issues, we might just start all talking about them and in turn create community interest.

We do not have community interest because we are all blended together daily and yet are forced to have “different elections.” No one, not one person here can say they have no one in their lives that does not live in another city. Most of us have friends all over. This fact helps reduce the interest of everyone in an election. We have no common ground to talk about the issues and the candidates’ positions on them.

No promise here, but it is a good and reasonable bet that an amalgamated city or two will generate a somewhat higher interest in elections and participation by the electorate.

Numerous Police Agencies Needed to Deal With Just a Few People

The idea was to find and arrest drug dealers who frequent downtown. It was reported on October 6, 2010 that to do so:

1. Victoria police and the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team arrested a Saanich man and a Nanaimo man in Saanich and View Royal.
2. Victoria police and the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team raided a Langford home, with help from the West Shore RCMP and the RCMP Emergency Response Team.

There is a problem here. It is obvious that the extra effort in our small city, of having to coordinate all these different organizations, should not be required and gives a huge advantage to the criminals we seek to be protected from.

Why Amalgamating Policing is NOT Enough

If it were thought that simply amalgamating policing might be a good idea and thus reduce the need to amalgamate the cities, one need only see what happened in Victoria/Esquimalt to see why this is not sufficient.

Esquimalt refused to pay $400,000.00 towards the policing budget for the two cities. Victoria was then required to make submissions to the BC Government, which in turn was required to spend time and resources considering the issue and in the result ordered that Esquimalt pay anyway.

At least pay most of it. They can now avoid paying, from $9,000 to $11,000, for their share of two extra officers.

So while the two cities share policing services, there are now different levels of service being offered and paid for in the two cities by the same department. The amount may be small but it is the start of differing level of service being mandated by the fact that each council wishes to pay a different amount. Perhaps the services are offered equitably but now Victoria is paying for services given to Esquimalt.

It is pointless to have the debate, at this level as to who should pay. Certainly the Police Board can debate the issue as can the city council, but to then have this level of counterproductive disputes cries out for the need to amalgamate the Cities of Victoria and Esquimalt.

Perhaps we could at least start there and then look further afield.

Further Comments on TC Article

Our fractured forces: Is it time to overhaul B.C.'s police system?
After decades of jurisdictional squabbling, and three deadly tragedies, is it time to overhaul B.C.'s police system?
By Lindsay Kines, Katie Derosa and Jack Knox, Times Colonist September 22, 2010

I have added some personal comments on the article last posted from the TC as follows (my comments are capitalised):

A subsequent coroner's inquest recommended the "continued unification of the various police departments" in Greater Victoria.

ONE REASON THIS HAS NOT OCCURRED IS THAT THERE IS NO WILL AMONG THE ELECTED COUNSELLORS TO PURSUE THIS AS IT WILL UNDOUBTEDLY LEAD TO A REVIEW OF THE EXISTENCE OF MULTIPLE MUNICIPALITIES.

Now, growing numbers of current and retired police officers, criminologists and politicians say it's time for B.C. to put public safety ahead of politics, shed the province's fractured policing model, and establish regional forces in major metropolitan areas.

CLEARLY GREATER VICTORIA IS A MAJOR METROPOLITAN AREA WHICH IS ENTITLED TO THE BENEFITS OF A COMPREHENSIVE AND INTEGRATED ORGANISATION WHICH MINIMISES ANY CHANCE OF JURISDICTIONAL CONFLICT.

"And the reason that it will continue is there are just too many bosses," he says. "The RCMP have bosses that are beholden way back to Ottawa. You have municipal bosses that have their own little kingdoms. Albeit, I was one of them and you're only concerned about your area. You're only accountable to your police board. You only care, really, what happens within the boundaries of your jurisdiction."

THIS IS OBVIOUSLY TRUE AS NOTED BY THE QUOTES LATER ON IN THE ARTICLE FROM MUNICIPAL OFFICERS. DEPARTMENTS ARE ALWAYS LOOKING AT THEIR INTERNAL SUCCESS IN ADDRESSING CRIME IN THEIR AREA REGARDLESS OF WHAT OCCURS NEXT DOOR.

On the Lower Mainland alone, there are at least 15 RCMP and municipal police jurisdictions delivering service to two million people. In Greater Victoria, four municipal departments, three RCMP detachments and three 911 dispatch centres serve just 350,000 people.

By contrast, Toronto's 2.6 million population is policed by a single force, as are all other major metropolitan areas in Canada.

"It's now subject-matter based as opposed to based on a geographical area," says Pecknold, who is deputy chief of Central Saanich police. "That's why the border doesn't matter anymore."

IF THIS IS TRUE , WHY HAVE NUMEROUS POLICE CHIEFS AND INSPECTORS WITHIN THE SAME AREA?

But critics say the integrated units only highlight the problems. With so many chiefs trying to find consensus on key crime-fighting issues, the units often take months to establish. They add more layers of bureaucracy, and attempt to blend the different RCMP and municipal cultures -- sometimes with mixed results.

WHILE I DO NOT HAVE THE DETAILS, I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT THERE HAVE IN THE PAST BEEN REGIONAL UNITS DESIRED BY SOME DEPARTMENTS BUT WHICH ARE NOT SUPPORTED BY OTHERS, OR UNITS THAT HAVE BEEN STARTED BUT THEN HAVE SOME DEPARTMENTS PULL OUT.

Greater Victoria has more than a dozen integrated units, ranging from the 18-officer Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit to a single officer working with exploited youth. Yet there are only two locally developed teams with participation from all capital region departments: the new domestic violence unit, and mental health mobile crisis response team.

THIS REFLECTS THE COMMENT ABOVE.

"These type of incidents will continue to happen no matter how often these police leaders get out there, and say, 'No, we've fixed it. It'll never happen again. Integration is the way to go,' " he said. "That's just a Band-Aid approach. A complete Band-Aid approach to policing here in British Columbia."

Saanich police Chief Mike Chadwick, a 35-year veteran of the force and a staunch defender of the status quo, argues that individual municipalities have the right to "direct the level of service ... from their police department" and that municipal taxpayers should have a say on the type policing they want.

"I'm not so sure if you had a regional department that would be the case," he says. "In Saanich, people pay for a service that we have provided for over 100 years now and they come to expect that.

"Saanich taxpayers don't expect to pay for what goes on downtown."

WITH ALL DUE RESPECT TO CHIEF CHADWICK, WHOM I KNOW TO BE AN EXCELLENT OFFICER, AS A TAXPAYER IN SAANICH AND A FORMER MEMBER OF THE SAANICH POLICE BOARD, I FOR ONE AM WILLING TO PAY FOR WHAT GOES ON DOWNTOWN AND SO ARE MANY OTHERS IN SAANICH. REMEMBER, OUR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES GO DOWNTOWN AND I WANT THEM TO FEEL AND BE SAFE. TO SUGGEST WE SHOULD NOT PAY FOR IT, IS SIMPLY WRONG.

TO SUGGEST, WITHOUT ANY EVIDENCE, AND THERE IS NONE THAT I AM AWARE OF, THAT THE RESIDENTS OF SAANICH DO NOT EXPECT TO PAY FOR WHAT GOES ON DOWNTOWN OR THAT IMPLICITLY THEY DO NOT SUPPORT AMALGAMATION, IS NOT HELPFUL TO A FAIR REVIEW OF THE ISSUE.

Saanich Insp. Bob Downie says he's puzzled by arguments in favour of a regional force.

"You rarely hear people talk about what it is they're fixing," he said. "This whole conversation is around solutions that are looking for a problem. But you never really hear any specific problems that are being remedied.

"In this area, we have traditionally brought people together when we've identified a need to do that. There haven't really been examples of where that hasn't been the case."

WITH ALL DUE RESPECT TO INSPECTOR DOWNIE WHOM I ALSO KNOW TO BE AN EXCELLENT OFFICER, WE ARE FIXING A RISK OF HARM. IF THE LEE CASE WERE TO OCCUR AGAIN, MIGHT A BLEEDING VICTIM BE SAVED IF A COORDINATED DEPARTMENT WERE TO BE ABLE TO ACT AND ENTER THE HOME MORE QUICKLY THAN OCCURRED? THE POINT IS NOT THAT LIVES WOULD HAVE BEEN SAVED IN THE LEE CASE WITH AMALGAMATION. THE POINT IS THAT THE PUBLIC WOULD NOT WONDER IF THE SYSTEM WAS AT FAULT. THAT CONCERN SHOULD NOT EXIST AND IT DOES.

WHEN I CALL ANY OFFICE IN GREATER VICTORIA I SHOULD BE ABLE TO SEEK HELP REGARDING ANY ISSUE IN THE CITY. THAT IS NOT THE CASE NOW.

THERE SHOULD BE NO TIME WASTED ON DEPATEMENTS BEING IN CONFLICT ON DECIDING WHICH RECORDS OR COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM TO BE USED.

OFFICERS SHOULD NOT HAVE TO APPLY TO MOVE FROM VICTORIA TO SAANICH. OFFICERS SHOULD HAVE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ADVANCEMENT THAT A REGIONAL FORCE CAN PROVIDE.

OFFICERS SHOULD HAVE EASY ACCESS TO INFORMATION ON ALL AREAS OF THE CITY AND THE CRIMES WHICH ARE OCCURRING THERE.

Graham, who also served as chief of Vancouver police, said it simply makes sense to have a regional force chasing and apprehending criminals who don't respect political boundaries.

"This isn't about cost," he says. "This is about the ability to deploy more effectively."

OF COURSE THE POLICE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEPLOY MORE EFFECTIVELY BY USING A REGIONAL FORCE EFFECTIVELY. WILL SOME PROBLEMS BE OVERLOOKED IN THE PROCESS? I EXPECT YES, HOWEVER THE COMMUNITY BENEFIT TO DEAL EFFECTIVELY WITH ISSUES THAT AFFECT US ALL IS OF GREATER BENEFIT.