SURVEY:
Vancouver’s political parties on making public safety a right

FULL QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONSES

Between August 18, 2022 and September 2, 2022, the Vancouver Police Union provided a survey questionnaire to the parties, and their candidates, seeking your vote on October 15. Below are the full questionnaire responses.

QUESTION 1:

While all stakeholders, including front-line police personnel themselves, agree that more resources should be devoted to community and social agencies that help reduce the demand on Vancouver’s police department, some activists have called for police budgets to be drastically reduced (“defund the police”). These calls come at a time when police calls for service have continued to increase, and violent crime remains a significant concern to the public in our community.

 

ABC
ABC is committed to enhancing outcomes for all racialized communities. ABC however does not support “defunding the police”. Often the groups most impacted by a reduction in police resources are racialized communities.

ABC fundamentally supports an increase in support for social programs but not at the expense of supporting the increased needs of Vancouver’s Police Department.

 

ABC is the only political party in this election to have committed to an increase in VPD resources and the only party to commit to a specific budget line increase, $20 million on day one to hire 100 new police officers and 100 mental health nurses to expand important initiatives like the Car 87 program. An ABC majority on School Board would also restore the School Liaison Officer Program.

 

Forward Together
Policing is an incredibly complex and difficult job that we all agree must be adequately funded. Under the Police Act, the provincially-appointed Vancouver Police Board annually determines the Vancouver Police Department funding needs then submits these requests to Vancouver City Council for approval. For the past four years, the City has fully-funded the Vancouver Police Board’s requests as required by statute. A Forward Together administration will continue to fully fund the Vancouver Police Board requests.

 

Green Party
We would not endorse policies to specifically “defund the police”. We do support increasing spending on social, health, and housing programs by all levels of government that will reduce the need for police response to issues that aren’t within their core responsibilities. Investments in mental health supports, addiction supports, crisis intervention, restorative justice, programming for youth and isolated seniors, street lighting and cleanliness are important for the health and safety of our city. Investments in community safety should be expanded with funding and operational support from senior governments and Vancouver Coastal Health, working alongside the city and communities. While elected Green Councillors did vote not to increase the police budget in Spring 2021, this was in the context of budget cuts across all other departments and concerns for the fiscal health of the City during the early uncertainty of the pandemic. Greens did not support subsequent and specific calls to defund the police.

 

NPA
If elected we would unequivocally not endorse policies that would seek to “defund the police” in any way. We have a major public safety crisis on our hands and believe we need to support our police service. We actively oppose any effort from other parties or from any other organization to “defund the police.”

 

As mayor, our mayoral candidate will actively encourage the addition of proven tactical and strategic equipment deemed necessary to increase individual performance and service delivery. Our candidate believes in the principles of improving reality based training (RBT). Our administration will add the resources the police service needs to do its job to the best of its abilities. In addition to financial resources, we would look to ensure the VPD had the support they need to enhance public communications. We are open to an extensive policy review that empowers the VPD to do the job the public expects from them.

 

We support expanding community partnerships to rebuild the police and community relationships and re-engage with community stakeholders that have unfortunately moved away due to the “defund police” movement.

We would in fact fight to fund the police.

 

OneCity
OneCity agrees with the many public bodies, including both the BC Human Rights Commissioner and the VPD, who have recognized that police in Vancouver are currently responding to a wide variety of calls, some of which could be better addressed by a different type of service.

 

OneCity supports investing in community-based organizations and outreach services trained in providing the support and assistance people need when dealing with a mental health crisis, substance use issue, or other health-related concern, including the Canadian Mental Health Association BC (CMHA-BC)’s Peer Assisted Crisis Teams.

 

We believe these programs should be adequately funded so they are capable of diverting calls that currently fall to police, assuring the best suited teams – because of mandate, expertise, cultural alignment, or effectiveness – are able to respond to each community safety need. It is critical that, when it comes to an issue as important as community safety, we invest our resources where they will be most effective in achieving the outcomes we want.

 

Progress
Police need to be adequately funded. Other social programs that reduce demand on the Vancouver Police department should have their funding increased, but that funding should not come from the police budget.

 

Vision
No. We do note that the police budget has grown exponentially, with no similar precedents for growth in any other areas of services or capital spending. The Police Budget is 21% of the City’s resources, and people do want accountability for the state of their public services.

QUESTION 2:

Many communities across Vancouver are facing significant public safety challenges, with several high-profile violent incidents having recently taken place in areas like the Downtown Eastside (DTES), Gastown, and Chinatown, among others. Aside from violent crime, concerns about quality of life issues such as graffiti, drug paraphernalia, and human waste being found outside homes and businesses continue to escalate.

 

ABC
ABC is the only party in this election committing to an increase in VPD resources. Specifically, ABC is committing to a specific budget line increase of $20 million on day one to hire 100 new police officers and 100 mental health nurses.

 

ABC’s candidates for School Board are the only slate to endorse reinstating the School Liaison Officer program.

 

ABC’s approach to addressing issues with regards to crimes in neighbourhoods and vandalism is to work with the VPD to outline targets, goals, KPIs, and objectives and allow the VPD to develop operational plans to tackle those issues.

 

ABC believes that the role of Mayor and Council is to provide governance and direction, with the role of staff being to develop operational plans. ABC intends to work collaboratively with the VPD to address public safety challenges around our city.

 

One of ABC’s top policing priorities is to tackle the rise of anti-Asian and other race-based hate crimes.

 

In addition, an ABC Majority on Council will commit to:

  • Deviated engineering resources

  • Micro-cleaning programs

  • Working with the community and VPD on fresh new approaches to dealing with prolific taggers

Forward Together
Everyone deserves to feel safe, but many major cities across BC, including Vancouver, have been bearing the brunt — and resulting tragedies — of an under-resourced mental health and justice system that endangers the safety of the community, first responders and law enforcement.

 

Housing and social services are urgently needed in Vancouver. Forward Together will continue to advocate for urgently needed funding from the province to build housing and increase services. Over the last term, Mayor Stewart has secured over one billion dollars in investments for social housing in Vancouver, opening 1,600 units of social housing in 2021 alone. New complex-care housing funded by the Province is starting to demonstrate some success with fewer overdoses, hospitalizations and calls to police where these enhanced services are provided. At the Mayor’s prompting, the City of Vancouver has increased investments in graffiti clean up and community cleaning grants to address the increase in graffiti and waste. These efforts will continue under a Forward Together administration.

 

Greens
Many of the problems described are a result of inadequate housing and supports. Greens will push for more drop-in spaces for people to go, more public washrooms, expanded low-barrier employment opportunities, and more robust commitments from the province to support housing needs including complex care. Greens’ commitment to community safety is evident by our support of the largest increase in public safety budgets in Vancouver’s history including increased funding for firefighters, supportive services such as restorative justice programming, Peer Action Crisis Teams, Community Policing Centres, Park Rangers, and community-led poverty decriminalization work. Greens have supported and initiated strategies for more assertive graffiti and tagging abatement, micro-cleaning and hiring of peer assistants to help with some non-policing interventions. We support the work of BIAs, CPCs, and community-based organizations to help improve and advocate for quality of life in neighbourhoods.

 

NPA
We agree that we are in a major public safety crisis and we are open to input from the Vancouver Police department in terms of policies that would help get us out of this crisis.

 

We are currently looking at the following tangible policies to reduce crime in our city:

  • Ensure there is crisis-level leadership on public safety at city hall.

  • Ensure our neighbourhoods are safe by supporting and working with our great progressive police service. Those who break the law need to be held accountable.

  • Ensure we communicate that it is not compassionate to think harm reduction and unacceptable SRO housing by themselves are helping those in need in our society. The NPA will provide a holistic approach, which was an NPA foundational policy: Harm Reduction; Prevention; Treatment; and Enforcement of Civil Behavior.

  • Ensure that treatment and prevention services are provided in addition to harm reduction, including models where those receiving harm reduction would also be moving forward in a treatment process.

  • Consult with communities and provide services instead of just shifting the problem to new areas of the city which is what happened with the relocation of the residents of Strathcona Park.

  • Ensure we have safe and clean streets, parks and well-functioning community amenities.

  • Work with other levels of government to Increase mental health workers.

  • Require BC Housing to commit specific resources for tenants with complex care needs prior to project approval.

  • Ensure police service has the resources to do its job to the best of its abilities.

  • Ensure accountability on service providers in non-supportive housing models.

  • Re-evaluate the process of the Downtown Community Court in an effort to mitigate the “revolving door” of petty crime offences.

  • Reinstate the School Liaison Program.

  • Where necessary seek Federal funding to enhance the Gang Task Force’s ability to respond.

  • Seek Federal funding to increase integrated tactical teams that would be responsible for downtown public safety and separate from the already stretched divisional resources.

  • Our Mayoral candidate strongly supports strategic initiatives that overwhelm the criminals legally and financially. (Mr. Big and sting operations) In particular, using tactics established in case law through R v Christou and Wright (UK).

  • As a party, we will engage the council to aggressively to pursue the use of No-go’s on violent offenders, sex offenders, IPV offenders and child procuring offences. We will seek a blanket NO GO city of Vancouver with the usual limitations.

  • We would seek an expansion of use of crime proceeds with some or all of the revenue going into policing initiatives if able.

 

Our slate is pro-police or very supportive of police services. Our Mayor candidate spent over 30 years as a police officer, one of the candidates, Arezo Zarrabian, is a VPD crime analyst and another candidate Cinnamon Bhayani has worked extensively in public safety within two federal government agencies, namely CBSA and FINTRAC.

 

Also with respect to policy, the NPA was the only party to vote for CCTV cameras and against city-funded heroin dispensaries during the last term.

 

Progress

If elected, I would:

  • Negotiate a new Vancouver Agreement, where the City, Province, and Federal governments work together to coordinate swift action with a unified strategy and funding model.

  • Secure senior government funding to buy up all of the city’s privately owned single-room occupancy hotels, keeping many trapped in a cycle of poverty and living in tents. Over time, most of these SROs should be demolished in favour of public, government-owned housing with appropriate mental health and community supports.

  • Cut the red tape at City Hall that is a barrier to building the housing we need. All the senior government funding in the world won’t make a difference if building permits and rezonings are tied up for years at City Hall.

  • Conduct a comprehensive audit of all services in the Downtown Eastside to determine if they meet their objectives.

  • Advocate for the NDP Government in Victoria to step up and increase the $375 shelter rate to reflect the actual housing cost burdens on the most vulnerable British Columbians.

  • Advocate for greater provincial government investments into the kind of services that can allow people suffering from trauma and addiction to find a path to healing.

  • Advocate with the Liberal government in Ottawa to do its share through CMHC and increase funding for non-market housing solutions to get more new non-profit and co-op housing projects built.

  • Build mixed-income, financially self-supporting, city-owned housing, using the revenue from a portion of market-rate units to subsidize affordable homes.

  • Build public washrooms.

  • Increase the number of safe needle disposal boxes.

 

Until all governments collectively forge a solution to this, it makes much more sense to identify some city-owned land where people can temporarily live in their tents safely. A secure place with washrooms, sanitation services, access to power, and storage.

 

One City
Everyone deserves to feel safe—and to be safe—in their community. OneCity candidates support an approach to promoting community safety that is rooted in compassion, dignity, and justice, with a focus on ensuring that community members’ basic needs for housing, health care, and social supports are met. Everyone is safer when all community members receive the housing, health care, and social supports they need. This will be our focus.

 

Vibrant, clean, and complete neighbourhoods create good quality of life and help people feel safe. Specific policies OneCity candidates support include:

  • Building the housing we need throughout the City.

  • Increased investment in street lighting, seating, and accessibility for people with mobility limitations, as well as libraries, community centres, and neighbourhood houses where people can connect, gather, and access resources.

  • Ensuring every neighbourhood has access to well-maintained public washrooms and working water fountains.

  • Exploring programs to deter graffiti vandalism such as providing other opportunities to create public art and investigating (sic) repeat offenders.

Vision
Vision Vancouver would invest in on-the-ground engagement in neighbourhoods to facilitate conversations between businesses, community agencies and residents to get to specific problems, graffiti removal, needle exchanges, drops, clean-up, and methodically tackle the issues that make people feel unsafe. We would also advocate for solutions we know that work, like having someone on staff in social housing projects who is pro-actively working with neighbours. Sometimes it’s the small things that make a big difference, the current City Council could be doing more to make things work better.

QUESTION 3:

The Province of British Columbia recently applied for, and has been granted a temporary exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to allow for the decriminalisation of the possession of up to 2.5 grams of cocaine, opioids, methamphetamine, and MDMA in the province. As you are no doubt aware, this is in response to the ongoing overdose crisis that is happening within the province, and particularly here in Vancouver.

 

ABC
Yes, ABC Vancouver supports the development and publication of clear metrics and benchmarks for assessing the outcomes of this temporary decriminalisation trial.

 

Every policy decision by an ABC majority on Council, Park Board, and School Board will be evidence-based and will rely on data from law enforcement, health authorities, and other key stakeholders.

 

Forward Together
Forward Together is grateful for Chief Adam Palmer’s continued support for decriminalisation and safe supply. Chief Palmer’s support was critical to the City applying to the federal government to decriminalise the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs in the city and, ultimately, the federal government agreeing to allow this practice in Vancouver and across the province. Forward Together strongly supports science-based outcome studies of decriminalisation.

 

Greens
Yes, Greens are evidence-based decision makers. Even though decriminalisation elsewhere (Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland) have all evidenced better health outcomes and reduced interactions with the criminal justice system, it is important that we evaluate and analyse the context and results here in Vancouver and relative to North America.

 

NPA
We understand that decriminalisation does not mean “legal”. The NPA would definitely recommend an “efficiency analysis.” If this pilot project does not produce the intended results, we would recommend that it ends.

 

We would support the development and publication of clear metrics and benchmarks, which can be used to effectively evaluate whether this decriminalization trial is ultimately successful.

 

We also believe that all the residents of Vancouver need to be held accountable when breaking the law and would do whatever possible to help our police enforce all laws.

 

We would also look at other responsible approaches that could be more effective than decriminalization such as restorative justice and we would encourage the approach of harm reduction that leads to treatment.

 

Progress
Yes. We will work with experts to establish clear benchmarks.

 

One City
Yes. OneCity supports evidence-based approaches to saving lives and ending the drug poisoning crisis.

 

Vision
Yes.

QUESTION 4:

As you may be aware, the Vancouver Police Department is currently operating at recommended staffing levels from 2009, which does not take into account 13 years of population growth within our community. Understaffing of our police service is leading to burn out amongst front-line members, with numerous studies showing that organisational stressors are the main cause of mental and physical health problems amongst first responders.

 

ABC
ABC acknowledges that increased police demands over the last 11 years coupled with a lack of a commensurate increase in the number of officers has led to unnecessary pressure being placed on the Vancouver Police Department.

 

ABC is the only party this election to commit to not only an increase in VPD resources but a specific budget line increase of $20 million on day one to hire 100 new police officers and 100 mental health nurses.

 

Forward Together
COVID-19 has put an incredible pressure on all front-line services, including policing. The pandemic made a difficult and dangerous job even more difficult and dangerous. As has occurred over the last four year, A Forward Together administration will continue to fund provincially-appointed Vancouver Police Board funding requests, as this is required under the conditions explicitly outlined in Section 403 of the Police Act: Duty of municipalities to use and pay for specialised services. These types of service additions will be funded, if the Vancouver Police Board chooses to include these types of services in its annual submission to Vancouver City Council.

 

Greens

We are very concerned that the people employed in the increasingly overtasked work of policing are experiencing high levels of stress, burn out, and associated mental and physical health impact—as such, we fully support resourcing more and better counselling for VPD members. Greens understand that modern policing is complex, and some areas of police deployment would be better served by mental health workers and better supportive housing options (for example). Upstream changes to provincial policy around social services, mental health, justice system, complex care and some of the recommendations outlined in the Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act’s report this year Transforming Policing and Community Safety in British Columbia. Within the context of the Police Act, with funding to offset and divert the many service areas otherwise downloaded to local government we support appropriate staffing and funding levels to enable police to focus on crime in our city without organisational and capacity stressors.

 

NPA
Yes.

 

Funding the police is absolutely critical. We support additional resources being devoted to the Vancouver Police Department budget to allow more officers to be hired to help address the staffing shortfall currently facing our city.

 

We feel the police have been actively defunded since 2009 and we would unequivocally fight other parties’ efforts to reduce police funding.

 

Taking into account the influx of population coming into the City of Vancouver every day, the NPA supports an increase in staffing to mirror the increased population. We are familiar with the issues around burnout of front-line workers. We are prepared to address an increase in authorised strength to reduce pressure on frontline workers who are constantly being asked to work overtime.

 

We believe this is the most critical issue facing our city and would treat it as such.

 

Progress
Police need to be adequately resourced. There should be clear and established metrics relating to call volume and response time. Resources should be allocated accordingly. A solution to the overloaded police force is to stop having them do jobs they are not trained to do.

 

OneCity
OneCity supports detasking the police and reallocating funds towards community organisations and agencies that are better suited to address issues of mental illness, addiction, poverty, and the lack of social supports in our communities. This will take pressure off of VPD officers who are currently tasked with responding to many calls that are outside their core jurisdiction.

 

This reallocation of funds to community and mental health response teams should align with a diversion of calls and clear and ongoing evaluation criteria, to ensure the most effective services – in terms of outcome and cost – are able to respond to each need.

 

OneCity will also invest in more Indigenous-led justice and community safety initiatives, as well as community-based and neighbourhood programs that promote safety (safe walk programs, for example). These initiatives will help reduce the burden on police and alleviate the need for additional officers.

 

Vision
The Police budget has grown exponentially, with no similar precedents for growth in any other areas of services or capital spending. The Police Budget represents 21% of the City’s total budget. Voters want accountability and we have seen no validation for this plan that indicates that this is the targeted investment needed.

#SAFETYISARIGHT