City of Victoria pledges over $10M for public safety following violent long weekend
CBC
The City of Victoria says it will address "public disorder" in the city's downtown core through a multi-step reallocation of $10.35 million in city funds, with the largest budget item to be spent on police and bylaw enforcement.
"There's no doubt in my mind that this is the single most important decision that council has dealt with," said Mayor Marianne Alto at a Wednesday news conference.
"We must do this. We must."
The funds are the first steps for the Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan — part of the city's 2023-2026 strategic plan, which was endorsed by city councillors in June.
The announcement comes on the heels of a number of violent incidents across the city within a 12-hour period on Sunday.
Police said in a statement on Monday that a business owner was assaulted by a man unknown to him around 6 p.m. on Yates Street.
That man is bike shop owner Tyson Schley, who said in a written statement to CBC News that local politicians need federal and provincial help to address crime in Victoria.
"These guys know they can do whatever they want, and I have been a victim of it," Schley said.
The man was arrested shortly after the attack and taken into custody by Victoria police but was later released on conditions, police said in the statement.
On Sunday morning, a man with a weapon threatened the Victoria Fire Department building on Queens Avenue, preventing the firefighters from entering the building to attend to a potential fire. He was subsequently arrested, police said.
Another "stranger-on-stranger attack" on Yates Street Sunday involved a man who assaulted a victim with an "edged weapon," Manek said.
The victim "ran into London Drugs to seek refuge for their safety," Manek said, and the attacker was subsequently arrested and was held in custody pending a court hearing.
The city will spend $1.9 million of the plan's budget to hire a dozen bylaw staff, with a focus on deploying to Pandora, Princess and the downtown area and working to complement police officers in the area, it said Wednesday in a statement.
The Victoria Police Department will receive $1.35 million to hire nine new police officers, as well as a one-time payment of $220,000 by the City of Victoria to match the Province of British Columbia's Community Safety and Targeted Enforcement Program (C-STEP). The city says it will be investing $1.35 million more annually into Victoria's police budget
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