Vancouver city council votes to give police and firefighters millions of dollars to address budget shortfalls
CTV
Vancouver city council voted Tuesday to give the Vancouver Police Department and Vancouver Fire Rescue Services millions of dollars to make up for budget shortfalls related to payroll expenses.
Vancouver city council voted Tuesday to give the Vancouver Police Department and Vancouver Fire Rescue Services millions of dollars to make up for budget shortfalls related to payroll expenses.
The vote was unanimous, with councillor Pete Fry abstaining and councillor Christine Boyle absent during the vote.
The VPD will get an additional $2.57 million to cover benefit adjustments for officers and staff, and an increase of $3.6 million for overtime costs, mostly related to decampments of homeless people along East Hastings Street and in city parks.
In April, dozens of VPD officers were on hand, mostly working overtime, as city staff conducted sweeps, removed shelters and displaced hundreds of unhoused people on East Hastings Street.
According to Deputy Chief Steve Rai, officers working OT have been assigned to similar decampments every day since.
"We've been deploying up to five members a day, every day of the year up to this point, in order for the city and city staff to clean it up as far as garbage removal and decampment,” said Rai.
"We're there in a support role, but that is an extraordinary cost being incurred outside of our operating budget and we're asking for that part to be made whole in order for us to come in on budget."
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