The Victoria Police Department says the city of Victoria needs to allot some extra money for policing if they want to keep the current Canada Day party.
The force said Monday they are $78,400 short of what is needed to cover the costs of policing this year’s celebrations.
Manak says there isn’t room for the force to absorb things like overtime, supplies and logistics.
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One option is for the city to allot additional funds to cover the gap, but Coun. Ben Isitt is suggesting reducing the size of the party and confining the celebration to just the B.C. legislature grounds and nearby streets.
Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe, one of the main organizers of the event, said scaling it back would be a logistical nightmare, adding there’s no way of knowing how many people will attend.
“We’ve streamlined it and talked to police over the past 19 years and we do what we can to limit the amount of police, but this is the 21st century,” Thornton-Joe said.
“I think either we need to bring back the budget for the police, or more importantly in their contingency we need to look at funding the police for all the events we have.”
The city has concluded that it would cost more to cancel the Canada Day event now than it would to fund the police cost overruns.
The decision will go in front of Victoria city council Thursday.
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