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Library, police, parks, everyone tightens belts in Vancouver

November 13th, 2009 · 12 Comments

You can tell it’s a serious economic crisis when even the Vancouver police are cutting back on . But that’s what’s being proposed, along with some serious choices at the library and elsewhere as everyone buckles down for the storm. The budgets for some of those departments were made public or were at least talked about today.

Police issued this statement and the library’s proposal for 2010 budget cuts can be read in full here.

Categories: City Hall Talk

  • M.Cox

    The police, God bless them each and every one (I mean it, they’re great, they’ve never arrested me even though–oh,never mind)…what was I saying, oh, right, they may have tightened their sporrans but they still went out and bought a nice eardrum busting super dooper sound projector thingamajig to make us dizzy and confused. Now here’s what I think about that: it’s all right to employ this sound thing, but could they please stop fiddling with the 101 different siren combinations they have in their cars? Just choose one and use it, guys and gals. I’ll sleep better, and you do want me to sleep better. Believe me. You really do.

  • East Vancouverite

    FYI Frances, the link for the Police statement is broken.

  • David Eby

    Only in Vancouver could the police get an extra $6m per year and 61 officers over a 24 month period and warn that service levels will be impacted by the drastic cutbacks.

  • Wally Epuc

    further to David Eby, only in Vancovuer do we still seem to think that having more police reduces crime. But then we have a City Manager who who came from our health “care” system where the evidence of what makes us healthy has been ignored over and over when it comes to investments of tax revenues. No long term thinking going on here.

  • rf

    I think Spartikus and his gang should have been careful what they wished for with their new contract.
    They got a little more money, and now they are taking it out of his budget.

  • Mr Peanut

    I would like to nominate M. Cox for deputy police chief….

  • spartikus

    I think Spartikus and his gang should have been careful what they wished for with their new contract.

    Did you at the time foresee that the global economy was built on a deregulatory house of cards, rf, or were you one of those espousing BC as the best place on Earth?

    Other governments in this little old world of ours are allowed to deficit spend in such crises – which even you have admitted is based on sound economics, even if you don’t subscribe to it and think Herbert Hoover was on to something. Vancouver, as we know, is not allowed to deficit spend. But it doesn’t diminish the point that the actual problem is not a result of an explosion of spending, but a precipitous crash in revenue.

    For perspective, a 5% tax increase would be approx. $250 on a home valued at $1 million.

  • rf

    Nope, didn’t forsee it.

    Didn’t need to forsee anything to know that the city can’t run a deficit. That was known.

    I’m just pointing out that you were the one bragging about the sanctity of your contract. Can’t change the contract now, so they might cut your job. It’s just a little ironic. That’s all.

  • spartikus

    Can’t change the contract now, so they might cut your job. It’s just a little ironic.

    People are losing their jobs in a lot of places, public and private sector. But you negotiate with the information you have at hand, not a crystal ball or augury. For example.

  • spartikus

    Is anyone else getting a Reported Attack Site! alert when attempting to view some of the blog entries here?

  • gmgw

    Spartikus, I just got a “Warning, it has been determined that the site you are attempting to go to has been infected by Malware” when I tried to access the discussion thread under the “Paris bike-system vandalism” post of November 1st.

    Is this what you were referring to ? Maybe it’s my smug attitude as a longtime Mac loyalist, but I never know how seriously– if seriously at all– to take alleged “alerts” such as these. Anyone could plant such a warning, for their own nefarious purposes.
    gmgw

  • Chris Keam

    Believe it or not, there’s at least one good reason to mix up the siren options.

    “In the early 1970s, manufacturers introduced sirens with different patterns and frequencies, to address a growing problem: Officers in different police cars using the same frequency often could not hear each other when approaching the same intersection, a dreaded phenomenon known as the wash-out effect that is a recipe for a crash. The yelp, the wail, the fast and the hi-lo sirens were born.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/nyregion/15sirens.html