You can’t get blood from a stone and you can’t get more police officers without money.
Members of Parksville city council have a bee in their bonnets about speeding. It’s a legitimate concern, and they are hearing complaints from a number of residents in a variety of neighbourhoods.
Oceanside RCMP Staff Sgt. Marc Pelletier came to council’s meeting on Monday to present some statistics and talk about council’s concerns related to speeding.
Some councillors seemed to believe the RCMP isn’t doing enough enforcement. There was talk about issuing more tickets — much of that revenue goes back to the city.
Pelletier explained that his detachment has only one person dedicated to traffic duties within the boundaries of the city. As one can imagine, that person doesn’t work 24-7 and gets holidays, so we’re going to guess here and say that officer is on the job in Parksville roughly 250 days of the year. And probably around 10 hours of each day.
Pelletier explained that regular duty officers will also do traffic stops (speeding, etc.), and so will members of the provincial traffic unit that happens to be based at the Parksville detachment. But when you come right down to it, there’s only one dedicated member doing in-city traffic enforcement, only 250 days of the year and less than half of each of those days.
There was an attitude, a certain air, coming from some councillors on Monday night, a hint of blame directed at the RCMP, suggesting the officers should be doing more to combat this problem.
Instead of dumping this on the RCMP, the councillors should be looking in the mirror.
Want more traffic enforcement? Then pay for it.
It costs roughly $100,000 a year for an RCMP officer. If this city council believes traffic enforcement, or any other violation, is a priority, it has the power to empower the RCMP with more members.
If you want a job done right, you need the right tools. If you want to expand your business and provide more services, you may need to hire more staff. That costs money.
This city council has signed off on a water treatment plant that will cost tens of millions of dollars, including a surprise price-tag increase of a few million that didn’t seem to phase anyone. Water is paramount and Island Health forced the city’s hand — this was a must-do for council, we get that.
However, if the city wants more enforcement, traffic and otherwise, then it should put its money where its complaints are and stop trying to fudge it and/or passively-aggressively blame the police.
— Editorial by John Harding
