Some Langford councillors say they were surprised and dismayed to learn the West Shore RCMP is planning to opt out of regional policing units, particularly one focused on at-risk youth that has received significant support in that municipality.
Coun. Mary Wagner, who attended a recent presentation on the two-member regional mobile youth services team, said that for the team, “it’s a triage every morning just trying to figure out how to save lives.”
“They’re working so hard to protect these kids.”
The RCMP made the decision without consulting with the city, staff told council Nov. 4.
Coun. Kimberley Guiry said the municipality has written a letter of support for long-term funding for the regional mobile youth services team — MYST — lobbying the province on its behalf.
The team is made up of one police officer and a social worker and carries a “very heavy service load,” said Guiry, who is on the board of the Victoria family court and youth justice committee.
A new five-year plan has been developed that calls for three such youth teams, rather than one, she said.
Coun. Lillian Szpak said she was “very dismayed and quite blindsided” when she read the RCMP’s letter to the City of Langford saying it was leaving the three units.
Although West Shore RCMP said the regional youth team responded to just 15 calls for service on the West Shore between January 2023 and July 2024, it is a regional service, Szpak said.
“We have many West Shore youth that are downtown and in other municipalities,” she said. “I think it is very needed.
“It’s very important to make sure that we advocate for our youth at risk in our community.”
She said she wants to find out how and why the opting-out decision was made, and will “look forward” to meeting with Supt. Todd Preston, who heads the West Shore RCMP and authorized the decision.
Langford has had a close working relationship with the RCMP, Szpak said. “I think that we do need to put our heads together and look at how these decisions are being made.”
Mayor Scott Goodmanson declined to comment on West Shore RCMP’s withdrawal from the regional teams .
West Shore RCMP has said it will leave the regional teams focused on mental health and youth at risk by the end of 2025 and the intimate-partner violence unit at the end of 2026.
The detachment contributes $74,345 per year to the mobile crisis response team, $37,349 for MYST and $121,827, plus $115,350 (the salary of one constable) to be part of the domestic violence unit.
West Shore RCMP services are jointly funded by municipalities in the area, including View Royal, whose mayor, Sid Tobias, has spoken in support of the withdrawal plan.
Preston said in a statement that West Shore RCMP has had success with its own initiatives in the three areas of focus for the regional teams, and working with at-risk youth is a priority.
Since 2021, West Shore RCMP has had its own youth outreach officer, who works with a youth counsellor, and is supported by its community policing unit, which works in schools, he said.
The youth outreach team was created because the regional team was “unable to meet the demands of our growing communities and could not provide adequate service to the youth on the West Shore,” said Preston, adding the creation of the West Shore team has allowed MYST to focus on other areas of the CRD.
Preston noted that West Shore RCMP offers policing to seven communities, including Langford, Colwood, View Royal, Metchosin, Highlands, Esquimalt First Nation and Songhees First Nation.
He said many of the regional units have long focused on complex issues associated with the downtown core of Victoria, which has left gaps in the outlying municipalities.
“Citizens on the West Shore deserve to have access to critical resources when required. Currently within these models, a disproportionate amount of time is being spent outside the West Shore and neighbouring communities despite the significant contributions being paid into these teams,” Preston said Tuesday in a statement that he called a response to Victoria Chief Del Manak’s comments expressing disappointment with West Shore RCMP’s decision.
“Just as it is inappropriate for me to comment on the deployment of police resources by any other municipality or their police service, I would suggest that determining the needs of the West Shore communities is best left to the Chiefs, Mayors, Councils and Chief of Police in our jurisdiction,” Preston said in the statement.
