Vancouver councillor questions ‘sustainability’ of possible new police contract

The Vancouver Police Department began voting on a new contract Sunday, but one city councillor says the contract’s proposed changes may end up costing the city a lot, for little reward.

Ralph Kaisers, president of the Vancouver Police Union, said the new two-year contract would mean officers are properly compensated for the work that they do.

“Vancouver is a very challenging city to work in as police officers,” Kaisers said. “We finally are being shown the value and the support from the city council that we have in the collective agreement.”

Kaisers says the deal comes with improved parental leave benefits and access to mental health supports. If members vote to ratify the contract, there will be an annual wage increase of 4.5 per cent. Constables with more than five years of experience will be making almost $122,000 per year, making them the highest-paid in Canada.

“With inflation, the costs are going up and our members feel it when they go to the gas station or to the grocery store,” Kaisers said.

He adds he believes the dangers of the job justify the pay raise and that the additional money will help retain members.

“Our members are regularly attacked, punched, spat on, called all sorts of names,” he said. “And our members deal with trauma.”

But one city councillor says the sustainability of this pay increase could be questionable in the long run.

“It is costing us in the long run and is this where we need to be investing our money?” Councillor Pete Fry said.

Fry says he’s happy to support well-paid police officers since, he acknowledges, it’s a stressful job. However, he adds the police budget comes out of operating costs and he worries this increase is a sizeable chunk of the city’s budget.

“This is a 2.5 per cent increase on our property tax to pay for our policing,” he said. “It’s not an insignificant chunk. It’s about $30 million dollars on this year’s budget.”

Kaisers says as a resident of Vancouver, this is something he’s aware of.

“Taxes are going to go up in the City of Vancouver,” he said. “I myself live in Vancouver and can appreciate the taxes are going to go up.”

Fry says he’s unsure policing is the best way to handle public safety in Vancouver. He adds he’d like to see the province step in to support issues around the city.

“We recognize that a lot of the issues we end up policing are things like homelessness, people using drugs, poverty, a lack of housing… are certainly not really what we should be policing,” Fry said. “If they are impacting our police budget, then that is a consideration we need to look at.”

If the new contract is ratified, it would retroactively apply back to 2022 and end on Dec. 31, 2024.