Price for Ken Sim’s 100 new VPD officer plan unveiled
Posted November 9, 2022 4:22 pm.
Last Updated November 9, 2022 4:33 pm.
Just days after Ken Sim was officially sworn in as mayor of Vancouver, there is a motion before city council that outlines just how much one of his biggest campaign promises will cost.
The motion, which will be before council on Nov. 15, proposes a one-time payment of $6 million be included in the 2023 budget for the hiring of 100 new police officers and 100 new nurses.
Of that payment, the motion proposes to allocate $4.5 million to the Vancouver Police Department, and $1.5 million to Vancouver Coastal Health.
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The payment would from city coffers and would be available on Jan. 1, 2023. The motion also calls for council to find a more permanent funding source in the 2023 budget.
Sim’s campaign for mayor was centred around public safety, namely his promise of bringing in new police officers and mental health nurses to address crime in the city. His stance led to the Vancouver Police Union endorsing a political candidate for the first time ever.
The new mayor of Vancouver has previously said that the funding for the additional officers and nurses would come as a result of “reprioritization” and not an increase in taxes.
“What we’re going to do when we’re in office is we are going to go line by line on those financial statements and we’re going to see where we can reprioritize. But I want to be very clear, and we said this during the election, we’re going to maintain all the current service levels. We’re just going to look for those things that are discretionary that we don’t necessarily have to — we can make a better choice,” Sim said on Oct. 17, two days after he defeated then-Mayor Kennedy Stewart in the polls.
