Committee of the Whole

Good afternoon, View Royal.

I'd like to call the uh committee of the whole meeting to order for Tuesday, September 12th, 2023.

Um, and begin with a territorial acknowledgement that we recognize the Lakongan speaking people known today as the Esquamalt Nation and the Songhees Nation, and that their historic connections to these lands continue to this day.

This afternoon we'll hear from the public uh during public participation uh portion of the agenda, which is rapidly coming up.

And this evening we'll hear from them uh in the public participation and question period portions of the agenda, um, starting uh that that part of the agenda will start at seven o'clock.

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Just to acknowledge before we begin that uh counselor Brown is currently traveling and he should be joining us around 4 30 our time this evening.

Uh can I uh have a motion to approve the agenda, please.

Moved by counselor uh Rogers, second by counselor uh Lemon.

All in favor.

Any opposed, seeing none opposed.

Motion carries.

Uh, can I get a motion to adopt the minutes to the previous uh meeting?

And that was the 2023 July 11th council meetings.

Move by Councilor Lemon.

So council.

Seconded by Councilor Rogers.

All in favor.

Any opposed?

Seeing no petitions and delegations, we can move directly to public participation.

Is there anybody in the audience who would like to address council?

Seeing nobody here, Carl, have we got everybody on the phone that would like to address council?

Mayor Cabias, we have no callers so far this evening.

Thank you, Carl.

Uh business items.

I'm going to um take over for Counselor Brown, who's not here, and I have uh no chair's report directly, except to say that uh counselor or that Superintendent Preston and I did have a discussion regarding um the levels of uh shoplifting, uh particularly in Langford.

Uh he tells me they're up a hundred percent uh in checking in with managers here at Quality Foods.

Uh and I suspect the same would be going on for thrifties, that they really ceased reporting it because it's so prolific.

Um and that uh it takes, of course, an entire staff out of their day in order to do the report and then to uh subsequent court dates, as well as the potential for altercation uh with with a potential shoplifter.

So I've asked him to go away and and think about potential solutions that we could uh help our businesses out with um because I'm sure that uh such as Langford, ours are having an effect, and even though we have data, some data for Langford, we perhaps don't have any data or as much data as we'd like if people are not reporting it, right?

So it's uh it's um that.

And with that, uh Superintendent Preston, could I invite you to provide an update for us?

Perfect.

Thanks, uh, Mr.

Mayor Council.

Thanks for for having me.

Um, yeah, so I'll go through as usual here.

I'll go through some brief statistics here.

I'll give you an overview of some of the files, and I'll certainly open it up to questions here.

So uh statistics 228 files, uh, which represents a 13% increase uh from January 1st to August 31st last year to this year.

So that's a 13, like I said, 13% increase, 252 extra files that have been reported to us uh year over year, um, with a 10% founded uh file load uh year over year as well.

So uh unfortunately we've had uh 94 founded occurrences uh in reference to violent crime from January 1st uh to August 31st, which is a 22% increase uh year over year.

Um, those violent crimes uh consist of common assault, uttering threats, harassing communications, representing the top three uh violent offenses.

Um and within that it's uh 34 percent, 18, uh 18 percent uh within those.

So you're looking at um uh the property crime like we talked about there, you've got nearly a 20% increase of reported incidents, and we are aware that a lot of uh, especially the grocery stores and some of the other shops there that are just simply not reporting it now.

It seems to be uh almost accepted losses, if you will, and they don't want their employees engaging because of the propensity for violence and uh incidents that are going to result in obviously significantly more event than uh than that of a shoplifting.

Uh so uh yeah, this is becoming a huge issue not I mean it's it's clearly in every community right now and uh when you look at the commerce and just kind of the economy of scale, obviously Lankford with the you know the General's amount of uh commercial space uh commerce that they've got that their ratios are significantly higher.

Um you know to put it in perspective yesterday I was told that we had uh 60 65 files uh yesterday just in the day shift alone which is uh a crazy busy day for us but I know uh the first seven or so files were mental health related all seven of them.

Um so it kind of puts in perspective how policing is transitioning in from you know kind of a law and order uh type of occupation more to uh a lot of social work uh being involved here.

Um, and it's uh there's no end in sight at this point here.

So uh we're obviously gonna have to work collectively with municipal, provincial, and federal governments here to try to try to come up with some solutions here to mitigate some of this because I can tell you right now that the the commerce and speaking with the business owners, um, one in particular I just spoke with yesterday, uh, you know, they're at the wits end and to the point where they're talking about shutting down uh their business just because they can't continue to go down the path of having these types of incidents, and they're worried about their staff and their health and well-being.

They actually do care about their staff and they're worried about that.

So these are things that we need to be cognizant of.

Um, and that, you know, I always encourage you to speak with your provincial counterparts and federal counterparts uh to make sure that they understand on the ground here that this is this is a significant problem in your community right now, in everybody's community.

Um I'll transition over to the Great Casino with the Great Canadian uh Casino.

So we've had uh we've been there 68 times this year, um, eight percent increase year over year, and within that, uh causing a disturbance, impaired operation of a motor vehicle, suspicious occurrences, public intoxications uh represent the highest incidence uh of those.

Uh hospital, uh we've been there 153 times since the beginning of uh the year, uh, which is pretty much uh on par with last year.

It's only a one percent increase.

So we're pretty much status quo from last year.

Um, the amount of times we've been up at the hospital, and obviously, mental health cause disturbance and check well-being calls are are the the main ones that we're getting up there.

Uh files of the mental health component um we've had 151 um mental health uh calls for in in view royal here um which is actually an eight percent decrease from uh from last year um and again i don't know you know there's some of that and i think you know no different than the shoplifting i think a lot of times the tolerance levels people are kind of seeing this is commonplace now where they're seeing people that are um having significant mental health issues and they're not reporting it uh because it seems to be more common where it wasn't as common before, and then now it's they're becoming used to it or are numb to the fact that uh you know we've got people that um we we you know I think I talked to you last time about the decriminalization of drugs and the uh the open use.

And so that's uh that's something that not everybody's still used to.

Um but in this province here it is legal to you know inject uh hard illicit drugs um on the streets, uh on on the sidewalks, in a bus depot, um, and all these different places.

Uh so you know I know there is a movement at foot here working with the British Columbia Association of Chiefs of Police with the province trying to and the Health Canada to try to uh make some amendments to the uh the act there because we recognize that there's significant concerns, the public.

You know, I've heard loud and clear from many mayor and counselors that that uh that's causing a lot of concern for their constituents.

So I think you'll see some movement uh there, but I would continue to request that you advocate on behalf of whatever you're hearing on the ground, because uh you have a very strong voice.

And we uh in terms of the mental health there, um, you know, we've got a lot of calls there for suicidal individuals, and we spent uh 127 hours uh on those types of calls just dealing with uh some suicidal individuals here from the last quarter or so.

Um I wouldn't mind just reading through some of the calls for service here.

So um this is from the middle to end uh sorry, from July and uh and August here.

So we had a report of a male sleeping uh in a vehicle on uh Glenary uh drive.

It determined to be stolen out of Duncan.

The male was arrested for possession of property.

Um sorry, um possession of drugs and was searched with a large quantity of uh drugs, meth, cocaine, crack, fentanyl are all located at individuals take into cells.

We had the casino where a male gained entry to an unlocked employee's car, was rummaging through it, small amount of change was taken, no uh no identity uh made.

We had a stabbing at a bus stop near Helmoken, suspect was arrested, held in custody, and the victim sustained stab wounds, but was expected to recover.

Uh the victim and suspect uh are unknown to each other, and uh motivation is being uh determined potentially a mental health component to this.

Uh we had a female uh who was previously banned from a store, re-entered this and stole the candy, was confronted by a clerk, brandished a baseball bat, and asked the clerk if he wanted to fight.

The uh subject then was gone on arrival and we're waiting um CC TV uh camera footage.

So, again, exactly to our point where we just uh you mentioned Mr.

Mayor there right at the beginning.

Um, these are the types of files that are coming in on a daily basis right now.

Uh, we had a mischief at quality foods where a male threw a glass uh bottle of milk at the till, smashing it everywhere, and the male was escorted out of the uh the store.

Uh Admirals Road in Allen Highway, the citizen walking the dog was accosted by an unknown homeless female who swung a bat uh or sorry swung a bag at a citizen and started chasing her down the street.

Patrols were conducted on uh unknown subject of complaint.

At the four mile liquor store, the front door was smashed.

A large truck tried to break in, considerable damage to the door, and it was a stolen truck used in the crime.

And that one's still under investigation.

We had uh several callers report a uh female climbing over the rail at the Helmican Overpass.

Members and a passerby were able to convince this young lady to uh to come over back off the railing.

Our members attended and blocked the highway.

We had an impaired driver uh near the intersection of Six Mile Road and Island High was pulled over and then attempted to drive away while the officer was reading the breath demand.

Uh they were arrested.

Uh then the drunk passenger tried to drive away with the car.

They were also arrested for obstruction, and a 90-day IRP was issued.

We had a bacon enter to a business near the 1600 block of Violet Highway.

Uh the small front door was smashed, and uh that is still under investigation.

We had a report of youth who stated uh he was bear sprayed while attending a party under the bridge at six mile, on cooperative witnesses and victim, no lasting injuries, and the parents were involved and notified.

We had a group of youth at the top of Shoreline Middle School, uh, on the top of Shoreline's uh middle school.

The officers found uh the youth who claimed to be making TikTok videos.

All were warned about mischief and agreed to leave the property.

We had a trader fire uh on the 1500 block of Middle Road, uh, suspected to be a cigarette uh not completely put out, but perhaps the chief here will elaborate more on that.

Uh we had a male and female refusing to leave a parking lot uh holiday inn, Whale Road were found to be high on drugs, but unable uh unable to uh or sorry, able to care for themselves, and they were moved along.

We had a domestic uh on the beach area of uh Durk Hill.

A couple arguing turned violent, and one party tried to hang themselves.

Officers attended to arrested the violent party who was taken to the hospital for mental health concerns.

Um stop there.

That's just a sampling of the files here in the last uh since the last council meeting there.

So I'll open it up for questions, sir.

Thank you very much.

Uh Superintendent Preston uh we'll go with counselor Mattson first.

Thank you.

Uh couple of questions.

Um on page two of the uh View Royal statistical report, um about 75% of the 1445 codes are uh RCMP statistical codes.

So could you tell me what's included in that?

Uh sorry, can you go again with that, sir?

So on page two of your report, I I don't have the report in front of you.

This is it's got a long the West Shore detachment lists the types of crimes and crimes of persons, offices or offenses against property, and then it goes down and it also includes RCMP statistical codes.

And that includes about 75% of the total.

And I'm just wondering what's included within those codes.

You know what?

I'll have to get back to you on that one, counselor.

Yeah.

All right.

Um this is almost a rhetorical question, but uh is the catch and release policy of the courts responsible for all the shoplifting that, etc.

that's going on.

Um, you know, no, I I I I I would say that a lack of um complex care, uh wraparound care.

Um we have individuals there that clearly are struggling to take care of themselves, uh, that are danger to themselves, that have no means to support themselves, that are in the public, and I think we're seeing a lot of that.

I mean, I think there's a culmination.

You got one, you've got the mental health component, uh, metadictions, which is clear, and then you've got you know, an economy here that's hurting in one of the most expensive places in in Canada to live.

So you got a lot of desperation.

You get we're we're we are seeing desperate people out there.

There's uh there is you know families that are struggling to feed themselves, and we're seeing some of that as well.

Um, but I would suggest to you that you know the other portion of it is clearly we have some individuals that are unhoused mental health and addicted, and collectively we haven't found a solution to these individuals.

Okay, thanks.

Uh I noticed that you're having uh putting together a mental health team, and you said you're still waiting for social workers from Island Health, I guess, to join your team and sort of what's happening there.

Yeah, so we're meeting uh I think Inspector Rose uh probably updated you last time he was here.

So we do have uh three individuals selected.

They have uh they will be starting here soon.

We have one member that's already started to get the uh the unit up and running.

Um hopefully we'll be joined soon.

I know that Inspector Rose, I believe it's this week, actually has a meeting with uh Island Health to see what the timelines are for the the nurses to join our team.

But uh by all accounts, we're essentially ready to ready to proceed.

Just a couple more quick ones.

Basically it sounded like alcohol abuse at the casino.

Now is this something that we could deal with I mean would reducing their casino license have any are you on the liquor license would that have an impact or you know is there anything else we can do contact the casino to yeah I mean you can you can get a hold of uh the gaming branch I think would probably be the you know if you if you feel that uh you're having significant concerns and um you know it's an eight percent increase over last year uh you know the gaming branch uh would certainly can go in there and and look uh for over service um in terms of intoxicated individuals that's their mandate um so I'd suggest that that might be uh a route that you may want to look into.

I I guess just in relation to that is this something the casino could actually uh address in terms of is it a matter of cleaning up their act or is it just people coming there who are already drunk and I yeah I'd be difficult for me to comment on that other than to say that I you know I'm I presume they all have the servite right program uh over there but it is difficult when people show up uh jump onto a onto a machine or at a table, and it's pretty tough sometimes to determine the level of intoxication, to be fair to them.

Um you know I think that again, that's why I leave it to our friends at uh the gaming branch there, that they probably have a little more knowledge and expertise on exactly um yeah, just kind of give them perhaps some proper guidance to the casino to make sure that we're not gonna see a steady increase year over year of uh incidents that are chewing up valuable police time there to deal with intoxicated individuals, which is normally like you say it's it's nuisance cards, yelling, screaming, it's it is the impaired driving as well, people leaving the casino impaired.

But I think a lot of the times it's inside intoxicated uh individuals that um are in the case found in the casino that we end up having to deal with.

Okay.

And if you had uh one thing you'd ask a bus as a a council to do in in terms of you know whether it be lobby the provincial and federal governments or or or anything else that would have be of assistance to you in terms of reducing the incidences, what would that be?

Yeah, and I think I uh you know I'll just reiterate what I said earlier.

It's I mean policing has changed exponentially over the last uh decade or so, and it's all transitioning into individuals that are suffering from addictions and mental health.

And I I just can't emphasize enough.

I I've offered it up before, come on a ride along, come on another ride along, come on as many ride alongs as you want.

If you need to get uh the perception to to get a a solid grasp of what uh policing has become and and what we're dealing with on a day-to-day basis, um I think most people would be shocked to see how much mental health uh and addictions we deal with on a day-to-day basis.

So to answer your question I would suggest that yeah we're you know advocacy and in terms of finding facilities that can properly treat these individuals.

Okay thank you very much.

Thank you.

Uh counselor Rogers are you up next or we go to Counselor Lemon.

Counselor Lemon please.

Thanks Todd it's it sounds like absolute mayhem.

And and um I'm sorry for your you know the day-to-day challenges you and your colleagues are putting up with.

And it also explains why there's a full-time security guard at Thrifty Foods.

Yeah.

Um just a question about um recruitment.

Is given given the the state of the world and the state of you know of of work, uh it are you hard pressed to attract and you know fill the um the number of police officers.

Sure, it's a it it's actually a good question.

And um, you know, I'm actually happy to to report that uh we've seen an uptick in the number of applications or interests, certainly at the detachment level here.

Um I think a number of years ago when there was a movement for defunding the police, and uh, you know, I think law enforcement was cast in a in a pretty dark shadow.

And um I think we're actually seeing the pendulum swinging here, and it's actually great to see.

And uh it it makes me uh proud and happy to see that um, you know, it's becoming, I think again, people are starting to see it as a very respectable occupation, and perhaps um they're having a better understanding now that they're seeing, I think it's becoming a little more public as to some of the growing concerns when we talk about mental health addictions.

It's not just a police uh and I think the separation between us and other countries.

I think people are are recognizing that law enforcement in Canada is distinctly different than other countries, including our counterparts to the south, there.

So um, you know, we're seeing a lot of uh experienced police officers in terms of the RCMP.

We're we're really fortunate right now.

We're seeing a lot of uh experienced police officers coming over.

Um that probably helped because our pay scale jumped back up, and we're very competitive with every other police force now, and we're able to offer a lot of opportunities.

So we're very fortunate in the sense that we have a federal side of policing that we can uh offer, you know, national security jobs, uh drug enforcement, some some different uh jobs that perhaps some of our uh counterparts um don't have the same opportunity.

So we're in we're very fortunate in that regard, and so we are seeing an uptick in that as well.

But I am being told that we are our numbers are definitely increasing.

Um saying that, we're we are short at the detachment now.

We've got uh close to 20 people that are off.

We have 110 people on compliment, we've got 20 off.

We have they've allowed me to bring in an extra 10.

So we're short 10 essentially right now.

Um but of course in the new year we'll have some new positions uh uh coming in as well.

And I think you know, when we talk about the burnout, the mental health, 65 calls for service with uh I think there's seven or eight members yesterday working.

Um yeah, you can see how this is kind of a snowball effect.

And uh when you have uh the more people that go off, the more work that's left for the people that are still working, and it just becomes uh the cycle of uh stress.

So, you know, trying to keep us properly staffed is certainly my priority.

I owe it to the the men and women on the ground there to try to make sure that they're not leaving, um having a helmet fire every night when they're going home.

So um, anyways, long-winded uh answer to to say that yeah, it is you know it is getting better for us okay good i you know just one more one more quick one later on the agenda um and he's not here to speak for himself so um you know i'm and he hasn't asked me to speak for him but there's an item from counselor brown um asking us to consider working with you uh to explore the idea of a community policing space yeah um uh with the work to work with the song keys and the squamalt nations um is that something that you would be seeking or required, or is Cole, is it all working well for coal in his car?

Well, Cole, Cole works exceptionally well um providing service.

So he's um his sole responsibility as a bridge builder between the First Nations and the RCMP.

And you know, frankly speaking, I and words from the chief, he's beloved down on uh on the reserves there.

He's uh well thought of, compassionate, empathetic, builds great, great rapport, great bridges for us.

Um, you know, we can uh we can do anything.

I mean, you're you're essentially our police board.

So if you, you know, if you were asking me to open a police station uh a community police station, but that does come with you know a cause and effect in terms of financial.

Um, you know, and we have 12 or thirteen percent increase in calls for service in view royal alone, and we're up significantly, you know, I'm gonna be coming to you asking you for a body.

I think it was in the in the plan for this year, uh sorry, next year, like in 2024, I'd rather have a body that's on the ground that can respond to these calls than a community police station, if I'm being frank with you.

Um to have them both would be great, but I obviously have to be realistic and uh and again I think I mentioned before that uh I think the community police stations are better served in in denser areas where there's much uh you know, there's obviously a lot more foot traffic, or you're dealing with um marginalized groups that uh you know perhaps don't trust the police and you're really trying to build that bridge.

But again, it's typically you see it in the big cities uh where it's more of a dense area.

Um we have uh coal on the reserve and he has office space in the Songhis uh building their their uh wellness building.

Um if you know we have our vehicles, and I think I've I've preached this before.

Like our our members are out on the road, and you see them out here, and they've been told uh to park their cars strategically to write files up to have high visibility so people can you know if they want to, they can walk up and have a chat with about the car, but they're also there at admiral, so that people aren't you know as uh keen to to shoplift.

So we uh you know we try to be strategic, or you know, if we have a speed issue, we we strategically park them uh near Sanit Road or or what have you.

So that I'd rather have that than have a member sitting in a community police station waiting for people to come to us.

I'd rather be out in the public.

So good.

Thanks.

Councilor Rogers, please.

Yeah, uh, thanks.

And uh, you know, the the report was very useful.

Um I'll jimp all over the place.

One um you know lovely to hear uh how well the um um the officer assigned to First Nations and and the public relations and the trust that they uh that he's established unfortunately the um the school district 61's decision uh to pull uh policing from the school programs and and we have certainly expressed our concerns um but it's uh it's telling to see uh the impact that it's having on on this constable's delivery of service.

Particularly uh uh I gather a canoe trip or canoe programs had been canceled because of the uh school board's uh decision and unfortunately 62 is is much wiser and and uh allowing this to continue and they've got the benefits and hopefully um 61 will come around we'll see what happens we I guess we've got to continue the lobby on on that regard.

Yeah I hope so but I appreciate the uh the the real perspective uh in the report on that um um I want to shift to um uh traffic and and speeding and the the comment uh that uh because ICBC has stopped the vow license renewal um program where it's obvious, it seems to be a a significant impr increase of workload to the officers.

Can you uh expound on that?

I think uh and I don't want to misquote it because I but I do think we've had a dramatic increase in uh driving without insurance.

Um I don't have it in front of me here, but we have the automatic license plate readers.

So I mean the risk you have is that you got you know good members of the public that you know forgot about their uh their renewal, and typically they're reminded when they're putting their groceries in the back of the uh the car and they see their tag.

And we have seen that a fair bit where people have just simply forgot, you know, they misplaced, they put this, uh they put the piece of paper in, and that was the reminder.

So um, but yeah, I I think, I mean, obviously it is more work in the sense that we have to sit.

If we don't have an automatic license reader uh reader, which I think we have three or four in the detachment, uh the traffic services members, so they're equipped in their vehicles, but our general duty members, you know, they'd be at a traffic light and they're always scanning or trained to scan vehicles, scan plates to see um, you know, unlicensed uh vehicles.

And so now you have to simply you have to run every plate unless you have one of these automatic license plates readers which is on top of the light bar, which scans 360 around your vehicle, it hits and uh and provides uh instant data back to the computer.

So until we have these uh these in every vehicle, it certainly does cause more manual labor um in terms of trying to run and see who's who's registered insured and who's not.

Saying that, like I said, we have installed a number of uh these license plates readers, and those have provided significant dividends in terms of finding those individuals.

I guess the thing is that you know, while uh the reliance is on on uh the police department to um had these this automated methodology to catch these.

And yet it's ICBC that has the ultimate responsibility and and has the um disowned that responsibility.

Um maybe because they think it's cheap in in some senses, but on the other hand, if you have people driving around uninsured, that could be pretty costly to ICBC unless the cost they're just gonna leave it to the individuals to sort it out in civil court.

Yeah, and and the uh yeah, there's there's some validity to your your comments there, counselor.

And yeah, um those uh license plate readers cost about $25,000 a piece to put on.

I know ICBC did provide a one or two I believe at the the onset and we've just been slowly building uh the the assets up.

Mm-hmm.

So maybe that that's some correspondence that we should be sending or thinking of sending to ICBC and and um with the expectation that they they should be providing every officer or every car with with that capability of catching what they they are willingly ignoring.

Yeah and I yeah I would I would strongly encourage you um when you go to your annual meeting um with the the province and ICBC that yeah, I mean detachments should be equipped with uh the technology.

If you've taken away the you know, the obvious technology, uh the you know, the visual that we should be provided with the other one because it is quite a bit of time.

Plus um, you know, it's also a lot of you know, I consider safety things when you have members that are having their head down typing on a computer, I'd rather their head be up facing the roadway.

So um it's difficult, you know, to to see a plate.

Um and then, you know, you'd have to pull over to run that plate, and by the time you've done that, it's it's gone by you, right?

Right.

Yeah.

So you then you gotta catch the guy.

Correct.

Yeah.

Um moving along to um Council Masson mentioned the uh mental health unit, but I noticed in the report there's some issue um you don't have space to house them in in the uh the current building.

Yeah, I you know what I I can't emphasize enough how how critical.

Like we've we've now officially run out of space.

Um, you know, it's been five years ago we were gonna run out of space, you know, with the formal council we we talked to and um you know, mayors and CAOs, we are definitely gonna run out of space.

We need space by um essentially now.

And you know, we're we're a long ways from having the the building structured and and uh and erected and run out of space.

So we are looking at um options right now, potentially there's uh space at City Hall in Langford down the street to to move some units.

But we really it's gonna really start affecting operations when you can't start up units or you can't effectively run units um because of simple asset management.

Yeah.

And so I really hope that you know I know Mr.

Mayor is on the committee.

I really strongly hope that uh we see a strong push here now that summer's over to get things rolling because uh it is gonna affect operations here.

Thank you.

Uh Council Lemon mentioned uh equipment, so let me shift the uh a little bit on that.

Uh body cameras.

Um, how and where are we on in terms of the federal funding and deployment of that equipment?

Yeah, in terms of the federal funding, I I can't comment on where the federal funding portion is.

I do know that body cameras are coming.

Uh unequivocally, they are they are coming.

They're just uh they're slow.

They had to go through the procurement process.

I think they've uh selected a um a couple test sites.

They're they're and then they're gonna be unrolling them out.

They in fact I think they're starting to uh uh on unroll them out or uh roll them out right now uh in certain detachments.

Uh I know there's certain detachments that have been uh designated as priorities uh right off the bat, just because I think there's been some critical incidents that have occurred there that have perhaps fractured some relationships that we're trying to to continue to build.

So but uh yeah, I have every confidence in the next you know 12 to eighteen months you'll we'll start to see them here.

Thank you for your time.

Yeah, thank you.

Seeing no other questions, uh thank you, Superintendent.

Um next on the agenda is CRD animal control.

Uh for the uh August two thousand three summary good afternoon my name is Mark Grew um afternoon your worship members of council I'm the uh Chief Bile Officer for the uh bylaw on animal care services for the capital regional district so I hope that you will have in front of you the stat sheet that we submitted, I believe a few days ago.

That uh just basically outlines uh some of the things we've been involved with in uh animal care services enforcing your animal control bylaw.

Um not a lot to talk about.

Uh what I normally usually bring to your attention is the highlights.

Um, and of course, I'll definitely uh field questions if you have some when I'm done.

Uh, are the the attacks uh we and we did make some modifications to this uh stat sheet as a result of feedback from uh the members of council.

So I do appreciate that.

It's certainly gonna help me.

Um yeah, the uh dog attacks, uh both domestic and human.

I believe we had in July, we had two in July, and if I'm reading this correctly, two and sorry, I'm gonna go down one.

One, yeah, basically one and one, and uh uh one uh uh animal on animal in July.

Now, I mean they were minor.

I mean, none of them resulted in a dangerous dog declaration.

And like if it's worth anything, of all the uh municipalities that we're working with, um, this is like the lowest.

So that's a good sign.

Um why that's the case, I don't know, but um you I rest assured I'm kind of following it because I I have a bigger picture for myself and for my my unit uh going forward with this whole process.

The danger Dog Declaration is is pretty much unchartered territory in the province, although it's in the charter and it's prescribed.

Uh everybody sort of administers it a different way.

So I I've put some measures in place that I hope are having an effect.

So I don't know, maybe this might be uh a symptom of it.

We'll see.

Um but that's also a sign that I think the people in View Royal are pretty good for the most part.

I mean, with when we do our patrols, uh we're not having the issues which ironically enough um corroborate um the superintendent's uh uh uh um narrative on some of the some of the issues that they deal with, i.e.

vis-a-vis the mental health and addictions, because we deal with it as well, believe it or not.

Animal control and we deal with it.

And more often than not, we have to call upon our learned friends across the street from us in Langford, and they're they're wonderful.

They we work well with them.

But these are some of the things we have to deal with.

That's more often than not when you look at some of the total hours uh at the bottom of each of those uh months, you'll you'll see, you know, the 52 hours.

A lot of that can be attributable to the amount of time it takes to deal, and and I know it's gonna sound a bit ridiculous, but a barking complaint.

You would be amazed at how long it takes to manage that.

And you know, when you're dealing with reasonable people, it can be very quick and short and sweet, and and uh ironically enough, your bylaw uh is probably one of the best when it comes to barking, the the metrics that are in that bylaw, and we often refer to it with our other partners because it works seems to work well, and it's it's it's easier for us to manage.

Um you're dealing with uh the mental health issues and stuff, it it can be very problematic.

But for the most part, um uh you'll see there we have a new uh category which I don't think was there before.

I certainly I wasn't here the last time I I was here in May.

Uh the the vehicle, uh dogs, dogs in hot vehicles.

So during the summer, we get a lot of those.

And uh we now actually have a pretty fulsome process for that, which is nice uh because uh prior to my arrival to that position, we there was there was um a misconception by the public that we would break into vehicles, like literally break windows to get a dog out there, and now we have a more non-intrusive method and protocol that we follow.

The breaking will come from either uh by the police or at the direction of police.

It's just something just nice food for your, you know, food for thought kind of thing.

Um what else we got here?

We can talk about um really nothing else with with respect to the stats.

They're kind of sort of on par.

Uh, unfortunately, I've uh I I noticed the August stats.

I was away in June for a period of time.

I noticed the August stats uh were somewhat um dismal in our patrols of your major parks, but um I can rest assured that's not normally the case.

Um I'm I mean without making excuses, just more for awareness.

Uh we we did we are currently down two officers, full time officers, as a result of uh medical issues.

So that can be taxing on the bylaw department.

Uh we often rely on um auxiliaries, which means we might get an auxiliary who's been probably newly hired in May and has only been out on the road four or five times through a partnering program we have to train them up.

So they they they they would have missed this, they wouldn't even have thought to do this, they would have been focused on file management and dealing with high priority calls.

But going forward, that should change.

Um with that, uh you'll notice.

I thought I might as well mention because I don't know if anybody's mentioned it uh prior to my arrival.

Uh in the last uh six months, you'll uh we are a different face for you.

We have new vehicles, we are no longer white, we have gray vehicles.

They're all decaled out with the CRD logo, and our officers now are all equipped with a stab vest, much uh like uh the superintendent's vest, except not the same uh ballistic capability.

But the reason why I bring this up, A, for your awareness, so that if you see them parked around, you'll thinking it's a different agency, it's us.

You'll still see some of our older white ones, but we're slowly phasing them out.

Uh but the the vest was uh came as a result of an occupational health and safety uh review at our department as a result of an incident back in April where one of our officers was uh injured.

So this gives you a kind of an idea, and it also supports what the superintendent uh brought to your attention earlier about the things we're dealing with.

Uh, bylaw officers have expectations now uh by the general public that are on can be on par with what police do.

So but we um we tried to uh purchase one that was not as um intimidating, and we did a lot of consultation, and of course the officers are they're all wearing it.

I probably should be, but because I'm indoors, it's too hot to wear.

But uh that's that accounts for sort of the changes that uh we've undergone here in the last few months.

So I'll open up to questions.

Thank you very much for uh your report.

Uh questions from counselors.

Counselor Rogers.

Yes, sir.

Thanks for the report.

Um the parks that you've listed, um uh Thetis Lake, which is a CRD park, um, you're you um you're responsible for Thetis Lake?

We do bylaw enforcement during the summer months.

Right.

Only.

Okay, interesting.

That's specifically tied to the beach area.

Right.

Beach areas.

I believe there's two there.

Okay.

So they they actually uh contract us uh our parks, CRD parks, to perform that.

And that's a that's above and beyond what the rangers do, the park rangers.

Okay, and and those those of course would be you know individuals, residents from the whole the whole region.

So with respect to the um um cars and dog or yeah, heart cars and uh dogs and hot cars, um, you know, that was a 50% increase over last year, um, which was pretty significant and are these in just in view oils would it be in the sake would it be at the shopping centers um where would uh those locations be good question and i actually have the answer for you eagle creek and uh the hospital oh is that right well and you think about the uh the the the totality of the situation in the hospital often people might rush to the hospital right uh because they're on the road they have their animal in there and of course you have uh so many people going coming and going to that place they automatically see an animal in a car and it's you know a million degrees out, but they don't often when we get there, I would say probably 80% of the time, maybe even higher than that, when we get there investigate, we find out they've only been there for a few minutes.

We have a whole process where we measure the heat, but with a heat sensor, the heat inside the vehicle.

Uh it's just it's probably the uh the vigilance of the general public, and that's why you see this blip on a radar.

That was just for View Royal.

You should see what we have from Costco in Langford, like it's just um again, marked increase.

And and and a lot of times we get there, by the time we get to the to the place, um, they're gone.

Uh the people in and out to the store.

Thank you.

Another question with respect to the complaints, um, is there do you get any complaints about feeding wildlife?

Uh uh in View Royal, I don't recall any, but in other municipalities, yes.

Okay.

So if there were an instance um where that there was a complaint that you received about that in View Royal, you'd be adding that to this column or to this report.

We would, it just would I think it depends on the circumstances.

Quite quite often it might be referred to uh BC conservation.

It just depends.

I I can't remember what your bylaw speaks to specifically.

There may be a provision within your bylaw speaks to it.

I don't remember.

Okay.

Maybe you could sort that out.

Okay, thanks very much for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilor Matson.

Yeah, just a quick question.

You mentioned most of the dog attacks were minor.

I'm just can you sort of describe what I'm what minor means?

Absolutely.

We actually are using a new uh new system it's referred to as the Dunbar scale.

It's an actual uh documented scientifically uh tested out of the US because when I first came into the job two years ago there was nothing it was it was purely a subjective decision uh starting with the officer uh up to myself who makes the ultimate decision so we put this into play uh I researched it put it into play so minor is anything that's under a level there's there's five scales so there's one to five sorry six uh and I think there may be one seven but that's deaf so anything between one and five is where we commonly work with uh uh minor is under three.

So it could be that you're walking down a pathway and somebody's dog jumps up at you, and of course, because of the dog nails, scratches you.

You get a scratch.

That's minor.

You can even have a dog potentially bite you, but we often refer to that as a nip.

And that could be a playful puppy.

It nips you.

But if you're not familiar with that dog and it happens to you in a public park, whatever, it gets reported to us.

So we still have a process to address it, and we use that scale, which we have it's it's it's a year in the running now, and we haven't had anybody challenge it because it it's scientifically based, so it's it's it's better than what we had.

Uh so once they get to about a level three, then we look at the totality of the circumstances.

So if it's a repeat offender, is it a bite, uh uh is it a dog attack on a dog, or is it a dog attack on a person, or is it both?

So these are the factors that that come into play when because to to issue or impose a dangerous dog declaration, that's like that's like putting somebody on probation in the uh in the general public.

So it's pretty it can be pretty onerous, and each municipality has uh stipulations once it's declared dangerous, what you have to do, i.e.

muzzling, maybe maybe it has to be kept in a in a um contained area in your yard.

Uh each one has their own little nuance, each uh municipality, and of course the dangerous dog sign posted at the end of the clear view to the general public approaching your property has to be posted and there are repercussions if you fail to do any one or more of those things monetary penalties so the minor ones are all scratches and nips and more often than not we even ask people we'll say to them you know what do you think about this and it's like oh that's a one-off obviously that's that I could tell that was the new uh a new puppy it looks like it's about eight months old and so we go okay so we're prepared to either issue the we can issue sometimes if the dogs more often not it's off leash so uh at large and or a dangerous dog caution so that starts that process now puts those people on notice your dog is is in the doghouse so to speak so he cannot he or she cannot do that again like can't can't repeatedly do that because eventually it will it may end up as a dangerous dog declaration those are the ones you'll see sometimes in the parks well they're not allowed in the park in the CRD parks but uh they have muzzles on them so hopefully that answers your question yeah thank you very thorough council McKenzie, please.

Yes, thank you uh a quick question.

At the bottom of the table, the summary table, it refers to shelter revenue received.

I'm just wondering um who, yeah, which direction is that money is that coming into us or is that money that's um going out to other institutions?

I believe I can't remember if the shelter revenue comes back to View Royal or not.

I I can't remember.

I don't have I just don't it doesn't.

So then yeah, so then we do keep that revenue then.

Yes, it's not part of the contract, so we we therefore we keep it.

And what is that revenue for exactly?

Well, that's the impounds and qu to maintain the animals at our shelter.

Okay, so it would be the owner paying that to the remote.

Yes, oh yeah.

When we get when we pick up a dog and we take it out to the shelter, and if it's unlicensed, then we to get the dog back, they've gotta pay the license fee and the um shelter, there's a standard fee for uh for us picking up the dog.

Hence the reason why we tell people if they get we encourage people to get their license because more often than not they have a licensed dog, then we ch we can check.

I could check in the back of the building here, the license, and go, Oh, um that's the the the mayor's dog and get call the office, call you and say, I got your dog back behind the the office here.

Where are you?

Oh, sugar aisle, I'll you know, can you drop it off at my house?

And we'll do that.

That's the advantage of having that's what encourages people to get a license.

Save them the trip out to Santax to go and to go and bail it out of doggy jail.

I don't think I have any more questions.

Great, thank you.

Yeah.

Thanks for your report and and your your answering all of our questions.

And uh bid you a good afternoon.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your time, everyone.

I think now we uh turn to our fire chief for the public safety report for July and for August.

Chief first, please.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Mayors of council.

Uh monthly report for July and August of 2023.

Um just a couple of notes.

Obviously, the report is what it is, and I'll I'm happy to answer any questions that you have on the report.

I'm just gonna touch on a couple things.

Um just to echo the uh superintendent's comments on mental health issues.

Um obviously uh fire is not immune to those.

And just to give you a couple of examples, um they are on the rise, uh, not only affecting the fire service, but our bylaw officers as well.

Um homeless issues are um on the rise.

Um interactions with those people um are becoming more and more um violent.

Uh in uh July, our bylaw enforcement officer was assaulted, um, and the RCMP are investigating that uh behind the casino and a homeless camp.

So we're looking into those issues.

Um the um yesterday uh two of our firefighters were involved with a gentleman down at six mile uh running up and down the highway with a knife, threatening vehicles and cars.

Uh he was tased in the middle of the highway and arrested and taken away.

So uh when when the superintendent speaks about mental health uh being on the rise, it's definitely on the rise.

And that transfers over to fire when we go to these medical aid calls.

Uh we're seeing an uptick in suicides and suicide attempts uh with mental health issues.

So it it is an issue that is affecting um the community.

Um VGH, um, we've had 43 false alarms to VGH this year.

The majority of those is people smoking inside the hospital, the um and outside the premise.

What's happening is uh people are spending such a disproportionate amount of time in the emergency waiting to see a doctor that if they leave the building to go have a cigarette, they lose their or they miss their line.

So they're going into the washroom to either smoke drugs or smoke cigarettes, and they're setting off the building's fire alarm system.

VGH, every time that happens, they're uh fined for that.

Uh it's a $500 ticket for every false alarm.

So we've collected on most of those 43 uh false alarms to date.

There's also a uh program of, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it, of harm reduction for a certain clientele in the hospital that allows them to smoke drugs in the hospital under the care inside the hospital.

So we're working with VGH on that right now to try and wrap our heads around that harm reduction plan that's being put in place for some of the populations in the hospital.

To speak to the Hallowell Road property, mayor, we're trying to we're working to find a PR right now because it is owned by the province.

We've received several calls to that property for uh miscellaneous fires and homeless camps.

However, the the province owns the property, therefore they are the landlords.

So we have no authority to tell people to leave that property.

So we're trying to track down someone we can say, you have a you have a camper on the property.

What would you like to do?

We we want to avoid a situation where we remove people from that property, and the province says, Well, I don't have a problem with them there.

So we're we're working to try and locate that stream of um contact for that piece of property.

And uh Chief, I've got a meeting with the province at the end of this month, and I'll bring it up that way.

That'd be helpful.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um wildfire season is um wrapping up and winding down.

We had uh Captain Petrie was in West Kelowna as a task force leader for that event.

He was there for about uh 14 days.

Um statistically, um May and June, 198 emergency files, uh July, August, an uptick 215, and we're seeing probably we're gonna exceed that for the months of uh September and October.

So the the calls for service, not dissimilar to the superintendent, are are on the rise.

Um we are um just to give an example, so in the reporting period of July and August uh 14 structural fires we responded to, there were eight deaths in V-Royal in that uh reporting period, and then we had a drowning and recovery uh up at Prior Lake uh during the reporting period.

Um I'd be remiss if I didn't, and I mentioned this last time the work that's being done at Thetis to limit our responses.

This summer, seven responses to the lake, three medical issues, two rescues, and two fires in the park.

The last fire, Barker and Highland, we anticipated we'd be contacted by the residents who live north of the fire, and we have been, and would be working with them in a neighborhood meeting to address their concerns of escape, access, firefighting capabilities up in that area.

It is a bit of a it's a completely remote area to the town.

It's a on a good day, it's a 17 18 minute drive uh from the station to that location.

So the reality is is if you live in that area, you have a very clear understanding of your level of fire protection.

Even on a good day, we're we're not gonna get there in time to save your house, probably.

It's um at that point, then it's protecting the rest of the forest.

So we'll be meeting with that neighborhood over the next couple of weeks.

Um and um IFF collective bargaining continues.

We have some dates coming up in uh September and October, and we're working through that process.

I will now uh be happy to answer any questions that you have.

Thank you, Chief.

Uh any questions for our chief?

Uh Council Rogers, please.

Yeah, a quick one.

Uh thanks, Paul, for the report.

Yes.

Um we dodged the bullet again on on forest fires and extreme fire settings and so forth in the Kappa region.

It's quite amazing.

Except for the few lightning strikes um, I think in in the um sip watershed, but that was quickly dealt with.

Um thanks again for your help on the Sake and all.

You you mentioned um bylaw dealing with more and more homeless uh circumstances.

On what category uh in the bylaw report would um those before I think where Brad's put those statistics under parks in public?

Um that's where I would think he is um is putting them.

I'll clarify with uh with Brad on that one.

Um you know, uh you know, give you an example.

I mean, we on Friday uh we had to deal with a homeless issue.

Uh an individual is sleeping in the portal potty in Portage Park.

Um right now, uh Bylaw is working with MOTI.

Uh there's a large encampment underneath the Burnside Bridge at Burnside and Watkiss, about 10 10 tents under that bridge.

Yep.

So, you know, BC Transit probably spent a million dollars remediating the stream.

Unfortunately, 500 meters upstream, it's uh the toilet for a homeless camp of 10 tents and numerous people who come and go.

So we're working with MOTI right now, and that is all going to fall in conjunction with, I guess, this rapid bus lane and the expansion and the changes that are happening in there.

But we're trying, they're gonna be working with the RCMP to get no trespassing signs put up so that at least the RCMP can enforce.

Because it's getting to the point where, quite honestly, our bylaw officer is it's a one-man show, and working alone and dealing with these individuals is not a is not a safe practice.

So it a lot of these files I think we're going to be referring to the RCMP, which will unfortunately put a burden on uh Todd and his people.

Appreciate that.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Chief, is there any other questions for uh Chief Hirst?

I just wanted to say hi, Don.

Yes.

Uh Don, we see you in uh larger than life.

And uh I'll carry on with the chair if that's okay with you and drive us through because you probably can't see everybody.

But I I think um you uh your uh report was well received, Chief, and uh we can move on to the next agenda item.

I just maybe uh we should uh receive um the reports from washore police and cattle animal control and and the police uh pause reports just move receive to them all yeah here second uh it's uh we've got a mover and a seconder all in favor of receiving the reports any opposed seeing none opposed motion carries and i think that moves us down to a building department report thank you paul move a shape second we've got a uh do you want to hear it or do you just want to receive it?

Is that what you're suggesting?

I I think it's pretty evident, uh, although it's really remarkable how uh how much we've had uh such extraordinary permit revenue for this fiscal year.

Yeah.

Thank you.

All those in favor of uh receipt?

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed, I believe this brings us down to um Councillor Brown.

Are you prepared to talk about your new business community policing?

Well, it was discussed uh in brief, uh I think with Todd uh previously.

Is Todd there or is it Steve?

I think they both left.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, it was a it was a discussion with uh uh council uh uh counselor mattson and myself about you know looking into the possibility of having a uh uh community police station, possibly um in the uh I'm not gonna say where, but uh in one of the malls or possibly even on First Nations land.

And uh I know uh Superintendent Preston thought it was a good idea to look into it.

And and uh uh Counselor uh Madsen said he thinks there may be some funding available if if we were were to include the songhis and the squamalt nations.

So basically what what I'm uh looking for is perhaps a motion just for uh Superintendent Preston to to to explore this idea of a community police station.

Thank you, Counselor Brown.

Um go to councillor lemon, uh just potentially with questions first before motions.

Councilor Lemon?

Yeah bonjour bonjour for moi bon after vous uh very very well done um uh don in your absence i took because we had superintendent preston here um i asked him if that was something that he would welcome and uh what he said and and i and i did say you know you hadn't asked me to speak for you um but i just put the question out to him and he he he said he'd rather have bodies you know he said if the you know when it comes down to the the the the dollars of this he would rather have bodies so i'll just you know i'll just put that out to you yeah i'm looking at it uh in another number of different ways well well for one uh some of the community place police stations throughout the province are are meant almost exclusively by volunteers so um it would take some load off although in some ways when you have a community police station it increases your call for service because it's making it easier for people to come in and make the you know the the the complaints of theft of bike and that type of thing um also i'm looking at the fact that uh the the building, the polluted police building may be delayed.

I know uh one one uh uh council's already delayed their funding for 18 months.

So if that happens, I know uh Superintendent Preston will be looking for other spaces to uh house some of the smaller departments, and this may be an opportunity as a short-term measure to help them out in some of the space uh requirements they're looking for.

Uh it may be a total uh not not doable because if it's if it's uh costly, it may not work.

But I think it it's worthwhile looking into.

Um there there's um a variety of different uh examples of uh successful ones that are that are uh ladiesmith's one I can think of at the top of my head.

But um again, it doesn't hurt to to explore that idea.

Thank you, Councillor Brown.

I think Councillor Uh Rogers has a question, then Councillor McKenzie, please.

Yeah, um it it it's again interesting.

Uh it was uh um uh we heard that um the mental health unit, um, they have no space in their building for the mental health unit.

And so there uh sounds like uh arrangements are being made for them to have uh accommodation or space offices uh with um the municipal senate uh Langford Municipal Hall.

So that might be a case in point of us getting some uh some sense of the numbers, the cost, the requirements, um, so we can really have some tangibles um on what that would be involved with that um uh those that three person unit.

I think it's uh their team is anyway.

So it it is uh an example where uh Todd can keep us posted on and and maybe even Langford can uh detail the costs and what it would uh be what involved for us thank you thank you counselor Rogers Council McKenzie please yeah I think I would need um a lot more information both in terms of the intention benefits and and the costs uh and I'm not sure if whether the RCMP will have the capacity to do a report like that.

Um so I'm just thinking here on the spot who the appropriate body would be to do that uh research and come back to us with a report, whether it's us or the RCMP.

Thank you, Councillor McKenzie.

I think that's a question for staff.

I I believe it would be an RCMP kind of report that they would provide back, but I'll I'll uh get staff to comment on that.

It would be primarily something from the RCMP.

However, staff would also want to comment.

Thank you, Ken.

Councilor Matson, please.

I mean I mean one of the reasons I mentioned this to Don in the first place was one of the officers I was speaking to said that if there's a a link between the the nations and and and you know, housing, uh whether it's a community committee, whatever respect you call it or just uh a substation, there could be potential for federal funding.

But I guess what Don has asked in his motion is we just ask that there are review to be done so that we can get an indication of some of the ins issues that uh my colleague here just mentioned, like what are the benefits to the town, what are the costs, and then we can make a decision on whether it's just too expensive or not.

I mean, one of the things I think is really important is um uh it's just the public access or the public perception that we have better RCMP services here.

All you know, contrary to what the inspector said, in terms of cars sitting around here very you know on street corners and things, um I just hear the same complaint over and over again that we don't see the RCMP enough.

And so us having a substation in the town, if it's viable to do it, I think is just a great idea.

And while we're at the point of kind of formulation here, I think there's two things that are occurring.

One is um uh visibility, well, maybe three things.

Uh the other one is investigating Councilor Brown's um uh uh agenda item uh for for a a community policing.

And then the third thing is a requirement uh for housing some of the RCMP units while they're building even now their their overcapacity and building.

So if um if we would like to make a motion that I would uh petition counselor uh uh Preston and staff to get back to us on uh value cost benefits then we could do that counselor Qualitage good afternoon counselor Brown welcome to the meeting uh I just want to uh first of all obviously compliment Councilor Brown's motion on promoting community policing in the West Shore certainly we can all get behind that uh in spirit uh I I will uh caution uh my colleagues that right now the RCMP are understaffed in Canada.

The RCMP are continually asking for more staffing, whether it be Sworn or civilian members.

And locally here uh we're facing a potentially new build for an RCMP building.

I am of the opinion that those priorities are much higher than focusing on a community policing satellite office that, in my uh opinion, of watching Superintendent Preston today really didn't have in his top level of priorities.

Counselor Kowitz.

Yeah, I think there's an opportunity too for uh a developer.

They're developing a uh um there's several on the goal right now, and some of them are looking at very small uh uh commercial space.

So perhaps again on a temporary basis, it could be even a pilot project, they could use those smaller spaces uh for a small community police station.

Um where I'm at right now, it's a very small community, 556 people, but they have a police detachment here, and it's only open two hours a day, five days a week, but um it's small, right?

And it again it doesn't have to be uh staffed by full-time by regular members.

It could be, well, Constable Brewer, for example, does his First Nations policing, and that could be an office for him.

And if you have a the the member that's designated to work in View Royal that particular day, uh they could start and finish their shift if they kept a vehicle at the community police station.

So again, it's another uh issue to look at.

You gotta look at the security.

If you hire volunteers, you gotta make sure they have security clearance um uh not only for themselves, but also for any computer equipment that goes in there.

So yeah, there's a lot of issues, but I think it's worth looking at because I know some community places police stations haven't worked and they've closed them, whereas others have have been very, very successful.

And in some ways it can take the work off of the constables.

Um particularly if they can stop in the community office and do some other paperwork or or have a sta workstation they can work at.

Thank you, Councilor Brown.

Any other comments on it?

You're you worship if you suggested a motion.

Um Yeah, I think uh I'm just looking at Councillor Brown's uh wording here, and it almost appears like a motion.

And Counselor Brown, I don't want to put words in your mouth, uh, that staff uh work with the West Shore RCMP to explore the possibility, but we're really asking for a report, right?

Um so if we uh modify that to say that uh the motion is that staff work with the West Shore RCMP to explore the possibility of establishing a community police station um uh in View Royal.

And I think uh um uh I can amplify that with uh an email to Sergeant Preston, but we're looking at value.

I think I heard from Councillor McKenzie, we're looking at and and that includes like uh will will that provide um the intended effect that I think Councilor Brown is uh suggesting with solution, but part of that might well be could could View Royal offer uh opportunity for interim housing whilst they're uh under construction.

So uh uh Counselor Brown, would you be happy with that motion?

Yeah, I'll I'll move that motion.

Thanks very much.

Okay, do we have a seconder for Councillor Brown's motion?

Second.

Seconded by Counselor Mattson.

Again, this is a report for our staff on the West Shore RCMP.

Um all those uh would you like to move, Councilor Brown, or if you feel you you moved enough?

Yeah, I'll move that motion or or second it for Braun must make it.

Either way.

Do you want to motivate?

I'll make the motion, yes.

I think I've said enough.

Okay, and do you want to motivate folks?

I think it's uh it's certainly could be value, and yeah, short term it could really help the RCMP out.

Thank you.

Uh Councilor Matson, do you want to motivate?

Okay, all those in favor?

Councilor Quellish, please.

Uh just so I'm clear for my colleagues and constituents, I'll be supporting this in exploratory fashion only.

Thank you, Councillor Qualitage.

Any other comments before we set the vote?

Uh all those in favor?

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed, motion passes unanimously.

Thank you, Councillor Brown.

I think we move now to the next agenda item, which is Councillor McKenzie for a building retrofit strategy.

Yes, and the title is a bit um uh might be misleading because I'm actually not proposing that we develop a building retrofit strategy at this time, although that will probably come in the future once staff has a bit more capacity.

But for now, what my motion is is that we write a letter to the province, similar to Sanage and some other municipalities, uh, to ask for regulation of gas utilities.

So I've attached the letter that they sanitage sent, and um I guess I'll I'll do a little bit of motivating now, or do I should I ask for you you can motivate whatever you choose and you could include it in here.

I just wonder if you could explain what a building retrofit strategy is.

Well, so we we've come up with a lot of new regulations or bylaws around new builds.

And in the future we're gonna have to tackle the renovations that need to happen with the older, the older builds to also tackle GHG emissions.

So that would regulate more the the current buildings going forward and renovations.

Thank you.

I'll second that.

Um now that it's on the floor and formally has a seconder.

Counselor Rogers, please.

So so I'm if I'm clear then, um the real focus is Sanitz's letter to the province, right?

And um so and I think you're Councillor Lemon, that's where you're seconding.

Yes.

Um so yeah, I totally agree.

Uh I think the Sanch letters is amazing.

Um they've they've been, I think there's another Miss Richmond who has uh has also uh done a similar so um a letter in support of uh those those that correspondence whether or not we need to repeat all all what Sandich has, but um uh to lend our voice and support.

Uh thank you for bringing it up forward.

I agree.

I'm okay with the letter.

Any other comments.

Councilor Brown, I'm just checking in with you.

Did you have any comments?

No, I'm gonna be voting for it.

Okay, and uh we'll just go to the mover and seconder.

Uh did you want to motivate further, Councillor McKenzie?

No, I think we've done a lot uh to diminish the role of gas utilities in in our town, but I think having this ask of the province to regulate the industry will be key to the bigger scale and meeting our provincial climate targets.

So thank you.

And just um out of curiosity, I do recall Nanaimo actually coming up with something a little bit more aggressive, didn't they recently?

Didn't they ban gas uh by a certain date?

Sorry, worship.

Didn't Nanaimo um make the same motion that we did, and that was that there be no more um gas in New Built.

I think it was the same.

I think you might be correct.

So for uh the the motion on on the table now, I'm I'm happy to uh support it.

Uh if there's no further discussion and nobody else wants to motivate aside from Councillor McKenzie, then all those in favor.

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed, motion carries unanimously.

And I believe we are down to me passing councillor Brown's baton to you, Councillor Lemon for the Arts and Carson.

Thank you, Mayor Tobias.

Um, the world of arts and culture has been on pretty much a hiatus, um, save for a couple of library meetings early in in August.

Um, I'm just off today.

Very, very, very, very full day.

I've had two library meetings already today.

Um, I'm on a working group towards the next strategic plan, and then there is a planning and policy meeting, which I, you know, they're in camera.

But I can tell you that as I think I mentioned at the last committee of the whole meeting, that uh their staff has been asked to report back and look at removal of fines within the library system.

Um and I understand as of today's meeting, that most most um the majority of libraries in British Columbia are fine free.

So finding a way of how to do this and how to make it work, um, it's it's the right time.

So I will report back on that.

And um other than that, um, if you you know, if you have a library card, all of you here at this table, um, if you have a library card, just to reiterate, repeat that you can access the New York Times every day, and it's great.

And that's it for me.

Thank you, Councillor Lemon.

Are there any questions for Councillor Lemon on Arts and Culture?

Councillor Qualicks.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair.

Uh the fine free, I want to call it a movement, uh, maybe that your board is looking at.

Is there any history background on that?

Does it have to do with um promoting more individuals from different socioeconomic statuses to to you know take out books, etc.?

If can you elaborate on that?

And uh quite interested in that.

Precisely.

Um thank you.

The uh one of the strategic priorities of the board is um access to services and and fines are an impediment to some people, many people perhaps, to being able to fully enjoy and appreciate the all that the library um system services um affords.

So it will, you know, just it will remove a barrier that makes it challenging for many people, especially perhaps now as we as we as we've heard, you know, this morning of all the people that are struggling, how you know um stores are challenged with keeping you know tabs on their stock.

Um it's a difficult time, difficult time.

So I'm I'm I'm very proud of this initiative.

So thank you.

Any other questions?

Uh I'll have questions when um when the the issue comes back again in a formal analysis and we can get a sense of uh what it may cost uh in in a uh municipal budgeting process.

Okay, yeah, I'm I'm sure there'll be something coming up in that regard.

I'm warned.

I I I did have two uh one question.

I guess uh uh part of this will go to you, Councilor Lemon, part of it will for staff.

I remember us I remember me bringing something up and perhaps it created a bit of discussion and one was that um kind of a comparative analysis between if council wanted to uh make its main branch the West Shore branch vice the downtown branch.

Did we have a motion and has council uh or has um uh does did staff write that down and as an action list or do we need a motion to formally investigate that I'll pass that to Kim.

We we did have a discussion about those those issues and I committed to preparing a report for council.

I have met with the um executive director of the library.

I'm meeting with her tomorrow and again next week so I'm hoping to have that done in early October.

Thank you Kim and uh one of the big questions that I had was how many people in View Royal have a library card?

And this isn't to say it it's it's not a bad thing.

It's like what can we do to promote it a little bit more?

Council then I I can help you with that um that came up at in one of the August meetings and uh the library system does not have um municipality by municipality numbers on library courts cards um so there is a um project pending or you know starting to be underway in which they collect um postal codes that will give some more of an idea.

It's not precise, but it will give an idea.

So that's that's out there, but um it will be more helpful.

Uh thank you.

And then lastly, uh with the fall newsletter coming out, if you had anything for promotion for the library that you'd like to forward to me to include in that newsletter, then we could do that.

I'd happily thank you.

Thank you, uh Councillor Lemon.

And I think you're tossing it back to me for finance and news.

Over to you, Mayor Tab.

Thank you.

I'll uh skip a chair's report uh for the convenience of time, and I don't believe we have any business arising.

We can dig into the first staff report, which is the Financial Plan Review for Protective Services.

I think that's you, Don.

And compliments on uh a great report.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Don Christensen, Director of Finance.

I appreciate your time, and uh uh I have uh this presentation and another one uh coming up, and they both have five slides.

You'll be happy to hear, I'm sure.

So we'll we'll just jump right in.

This report is the second of a series leading to our financial plan discussions for the 2024 to 2028 financial plan.

This one focuses on protective services.

You see the list just kind of generalized of the types of things that are included in protective services.

For fire protection, I should clarify, 10 full time staff, two part time staff, and as you know, are very well supported with volunteers.

They provide fire protection, training and education, emergency planning, and of course, we've got building inspection in this category as well, bylaw and other protective services, which does include animal control.

Police services, of course, are provided under the RCMP, and that is a contracted service coming out of the West Shore detachment.

So you'll see here that while what you're looking at, and this is uh hard to read on the screen, I appreciate, but it is attached to the report, kind of the details that is the focus of this uh report.

Primarily, most of the revenue supporting these services is coming from taxation.

You'll you'll see that in general, all told, this division is responsible for only 4% of View Royal's revenue.

Most of that is coming from through fire protection and emergency planning service agreements with our neighboring First Nations and municipality, primarily Callwood, and of course building permit revenue does make up a good chunk of that as well.

When we look at expenses, you can see that policing is responsible for about half or nearly half of the expenses of this division, with fire services coming in at 38%.

And that really is kind of tells the story.

The RCMP contract is in the blue section of that graph, being the contracted services with RCMP, but there are other contracted services as well: fire dispatch and crest being one, being two more.

And when we look at what the money pays for goods and services, being those contracts that we have, labor primarily for fire and municipal employees for policing through Langford's contract, and then very little um else for insurance and um utilities and so forth.

That is my report I'm happy to um um you know answer the questions that I can or direct them to other staff that might be able to help thank you Don uh Council McKenzie Thank you Don I think one of the reasons I was interested in in these reports is because I have my budget brain on and thinking where we can identify possible savings if necessary in in each of these areas.

So I know it's not really a question for you, um, as it would probably be for uh Superintendent Mc Preston or uh the fire chief um to identify you know where where are where is there room for potential uh wiggle room if if we needed to do that um yeah council McKenzie Tom if I may I I could make just a a little bit of a general statement and nothing specific that being View Royal primarily contracts out much of the work that is done i e our CMP crest um our Surrey dispatch center we sign on to those contracts, and typically that is for a time period uh after which we would get a chance to re-evaluate that that comes by periodically.

But once it's into a contract, there's I would say from year to year, very little opportunity to change the dollar value of those contracts, unless they are, of course, based on a metric that is that we have some control over.

So the other big component of our expenses that ViewRaw Council has control over through its CAO is staffing.

However, every staff represents work and service that is to be done at the direction of council.

So my suggestion would be that if you are thinking of cutting costs, what you're really thinking about is cutting services.

Because that's kind of the only way to do it.

And that is going to be limited to those services, you know, at a certain point in time that are not contracted out.

I mean, yes, you could you could you know blow something up and think of building it right from the ground up again, but that that would be a fairly big exercise, and and um may or may not achieve uh you know what what you're looking for.

So that's just kind of a general broad statement of of when you when when council says um we need to cut costs, what I'm hearing, and and I don't know that i can speak for all of staff but what i'm hearing is what would council like us not to do so if that is expressed in that way then then you know possibly we can get back to council with okay if we don't mow the grass but every but once a month it's gonna save you x number of dollars right so so just kind of thinking along those lines yes thank you and i i appreciate i appreciate that and my comments not just specifically to protective services it's something as we go through each of the areas that I I just like to keep in my mind and look for ask that question yeah is do we want to continue with the current level of service or do we want to see if we change that and uh therefore the budget might change.

Thank you.

Thank you uh Counselor Rogers.

I see no keep ignoring me.

I'm used to you being online counselor Matson I just wanted to compliment uh Don, you and your staff for putting this report together.

It was uh one of the times that you brought everything together quite nicely and uh you know even though I've been doing this a long time, I haven't really seen a report like this that sort of outlined so clearly, you know, who's doing what and where and what the costs are and where the funds go from.

So I just wanted to thank you for that.

Um, I was just in Port Hardy and I was advised that uh probably because of the level of training the fire ha department has that they aren't all actually aren't allowed to go into buildings once they're on fire.

And so again, it's I mean, one way you could save money is to have a less well trained fire department, etc.

But uh the way the province has now done things in terms of the requirements, I'm always amazed at how much training goes on and the the the quality of the staff that we have and then what the volunteers go through.

But it seems like that's a minimum that's necessary for us to provide the services that we do, and otherwise we're I don't know, breaking windows and putting hoses in them anyways so compliments to our chief and staff and compliments to Don for a very thorough and understandable report thank you thank you Councillor Matson uh counselor Rogers yes uh thanks again for the report I guess the um and you know when we talked about the the expenses uh up until this year it uh begs the question where are we going for the next uh five and uh all I keep thinking thank goodness we built the fire hole when we did.

When we considered the inflation factors um the cost of equipment um and so forth uh it's uh it would be untenable, I think, nowadays um uh to even consider um uh the chief raised an interesting point, and and that's the union negotiations, and what are the those future costs uh that uh may be a factor here?

Um I'm just an another point of um um I I think that's really important to note is the work on efficiencies, coordination, cooperation with the the other West Shore municipalities and and uh their fire departments.

You know, that's the scale of efficiencies that um I I think are going to um convince the public that if there's going to be tax increases, we took care of every other possibility first.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Rogers.

Is there any other comments or questions for Don on this?

Councillor McKenzie?

Or Councillor Brown.

That's not ideal, is it zooming in?

Yes, thank you.