'We misunderstood': Vancouver mayor's public safety plan not being funded by the province after all
CTV
B.C.'s newly announced public safety plan does not allocate funding for the Vancouver mayor's promise to hire more mental health nurses and police officers in the city, the office of the premier has confirmed.
B.C.'s newly announced public safety plan does not allocate funding for the Vancouver mayor's plan to hire more mental health nurses and police officers in the city, the office of the premier has confirmed.
After Premier David Eby's announcement of sweeping new measures to tackle public safety issues, Ken Sim said the province would be chipping in funding for one of his central campaign promises – which was to hire 100 new officers and 100 new nurses.
Three million dollars in provincial funding, he claimed Sunday, would make up the difference between the $4.5 million the city is proposing to give the Vancouver Police Department to hire new officers and the $1.5 million for Vancouver Coastal Health to hire mental health nurses.
But on Monday his chief of staff Kareem Allam walked that claim back in a social media post, saying "we misunderstood." A spokesperson for the mayor reiterated this in a statement emailed to CTV News.
"To correct the record. The province didn’t offer all $3 million to Vancouver. We misunderstood," it reads in part. "We are excited about the policy alignment between Vancouver and the province to increase frontline mental health supports and restorative justice as part of a broader public safety strategy."
The "Safer Communities Action Plan" does include $3 million to expand "integrated mobile community crisis response" programs in which a mental health nurse is paired with a police officer. There are currently 10 of these programs in B.C. that are partnerships between police departments and health authorities – only one of which is in Vancouver. How the funding will be allocated has yet to be determined, with the provincial announcement saying "an application process will be established for communities."
In a statement, a spokesperson for the premier said that no funding has been earmarked for the City of Vancouver.
