Should Greater Victoria have a unified police force? One township's decision is reviving the debate

When Esquimalt, a municipality in the southern tip of Vancouver Island, had its police force absorbed by neighbouring Victoria in 2002, Mayor Barb Desjardins says it was with the understanding that it would be the first step in creating a larger, regional police force for multiple municipalities in the Greater Victoria area.

Twenty years later, that hasn't happened. 

So on Tuesday, the municipality — home to about 15,000 people — voted once again to take policing into its own hands, and opted not to renew their joint policing agreement with Victoria, which expires on Dec. 31, 2023.

"It is unfair to Esquimalt to bear the extra cost for the City of Victoria policing that other municipalities don't share," said Desjardins.

The decision is reviving discussions around creating a regional police force in Greater Victoria, with some — including Victoria's police chief — hoping it could lead to the merging of police services in southern Vancouver Island.

'Fractured' policing doesn't make sense: former chief

A 2020 review of B.C.'s Police Act noted that Greater Victoria was a "policing outlier" in Canada because it does not have a central agency responsible for policing the majority of its census metropolitan area, which covers 13 municipalities and 397,237 people as of 2021. 

Instead, the region is policed by four municipal police departments — Saanich, Central Saanich, Oak Bay and Victoria — and multiple RCMP detachments.

The model causes problems for both law enforcement and the public, says John Ducker, who served as deputy chief of the Victoria Police Department from 2008 through 2013.

"It doesn't make any sense, this fractured level of policing," he said.

"It's caused all kinds of investigative problems. And it makes life easier for criminals to move around the region because information isn't shared as freely as it could be in a single department."

One exception is Esquimalt: about four kilometres west of Victoria, the township is policed by VicPD's Esquimalt Division.

Policing in the two municipalities were merged on Jan. 1, 2003 following an order in council issued by the province.

But Esquimalt has long been unhappy with the arrangement, arguing its residents are subsidizing policing costs in Victoria — which itself is subsidizing those costs for southern Vancouver Island.

In a release, Esquimalt said their share of the total VicPD budget is 13.67 per cent — 22 per cent of its annual budget.

It also said it has the second-highest operating costs for police services among B.C. jurisdictions with populations between 15,000 and 25,000 people.

The municipality is asking the province for $150,000 to cover the cost of hiring a consultant and preparing a proposal for a policing model and transition plan. 

Regional police would offer 'better services': councillor

VicPD Chief Del Manak says he's sorry to hear of Esquimalt's decision, as he is also hoping to see the province adopt a regional policing approach in Greater Victoria.

Victoria city councillor Marianne Alto, who is running for mayor in the upcoming election, says Esquimalt's decision was expected.

"It's not a surprise," she told CBC News. "I'm actually really hopeful from one perspective that Esquimalt taking this position will open the door for a larger conversation with the province about regional policing."

Victoria has long called for a regional police force so surrounding municipalities could help bear some of the costs associated with policing the city's core, which the city says draws visitors from surrounding areas and supports a host of social services for vulnerable people.

Alto says the push for regional policing isn't just about saving money and being more efficient.

"It's about creating better services, more responsive services, more complete services," she said.

"Services that can look holistically across the southern region of the island to see what has to happen in response to crime — locally and regionally."

Regional policing more complicated in practice: mayor

Not all municipalities agree.

Kevin Murdoch, mayor of Oak Bay, which borders Victoria to the east, says while regionalizing police sounds like a streamlined solution, creating a governance system that works for all municipalities is more complicated in practice.

"Where Esquimalt and Victoria really struggled was with the fact that they had a ... hybrid governance model that would only get worse if we tried to expand it across multiple jurisdictions," Murdoch said. 

He says information and resource sharing already occurs within the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit, and the Capital Regional District Integrated Road Safety Unit.

He adds that Victoria collects a higher tax rate to offset costs for social services, and that Oak Bay also pays for services used by more than just their population.

"I would ask that perhaps city [of Victoria] voters should then turn around and chip in for our parks and recreation cost, where we bear three of the rec centres and Victoria has none."

In a statement, B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said Esquimalt has to provide the province with a detailed plan for its new policing model and its transition.

"The ministry will then determine if the proposed plan will provide an adequate and effective level of policing and law enforcement to the community," Farnworth said.

Desjardins says public consultations found 74 per cent of people living in Esquimalt supported the idea of reviewing all policing options.

The current model will remain in place until the province signs off on a new one.