: FEDERAL Finance
Minister Paul Martin

_ is ruminating on how
best to spend an antic-
ipated $67 billion in

.. budgetary surplus over

the next five years.

Editorials across the
country are also engaging in
speculation on what this
| government «ill do, with
most predic.ing a spending

“Spree that would make Glen
Clark blush.

Last week, news broke

: that 30% of the RCMP in

©. British Columbia have not
qualified this year on their

rearms. News reports quot-

ed New Westminster police
sergeant Ivan Chu saying his
~ department would not lec an

aunqualified officer on the
road.

Technically, the RCMP
have the same "policy.
‘Technically.

“But that was before the
» finance minister got all his
tra money.

“All police officers need to

nalify annually to demon-
trate their proficiency with
heir weapons.

This is part of the ongo-
ing training of every mem-

ex.of the police service,
including the RCMP. This

rgument in ‘the:
-of the police auxiliary.
But.two years ago, when
the. RCMP fell into budget
blems, a nuinber of °
ings occurred to cut costs,
ch continue to affect. °

opened, it had'to scale up -

to get to full
ich “took, seVeral:

crime and
3} punishment

mum strength basis.
Essentially this meant that
cach police shift had to field
a mandared minimum num-
der of police officers
required to answer calls for
service,

For example, if'a specitic
watch or team had 20 offi-
cers assigned to it, and had a
minimum assignation of 12,
then they could never go
below thar number. They
usually ficided 16 or 17 offi-
cers and rarely, only rarely,
did the shift go down to its
minimum.

_- Now the minimum is the
norm and the police are
having to scramble to meet
that.

The efféct is quite sim-

opie. Ineskes longer to get

the police to come if you
need them, and they have to
postpone, or cancel entirely,

some programs, projects and
other measures to combat
crime proactively just to
meet their basic service
functions.

Then vou get to the
overtime budget.

When they have to
scramble to meet mini-
mums, often it means calling
somcone in on a day off and
thar translates into overtime
pay. Overtime used up in
this fashion takes away bud-
gered money from other
operational areas.

Many squads have already
used up or surpassed their
allocted overtime for this fis-
cal year, which does not end
until March 30.

All of this, by the way,
includes our own police
detachment.

North Vancouver is not
immune to the fallout.

With five months left in
the fiscal year, North Van’s
burglary squad, for example,
has no overtime budget
remaining.

The problem then trans-
lates into issues like training,
which brings us back to the
police officers who have not
qualified on their weapons,

To qualify, an officer has

pik Senile).
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City Hall needs é a.
breath: of fresh air.

Vote for an

experienced, capable &
geproachable Mayor. .

Rod Clark for City Mayor ||

‘Web Veb hitpiligo-to/RodClark _

Tel: 986-5581

to spend a full day at the fir-
ing range.

With squads running at
mimmums, they cannot do
this during a scheduled
workday. The solution is ts
bring the officer in ona day
off.

Sorry, but that then
means overtime. But there
isn’t any overtime available
in the budger. No overtime,
No extra Manpower, no
training. Resuit: unqualified
police officers on the streets
breaking the Mounties’ own
policy.

The whole situation is
dreadful.

Paul Martin and the
Liberals have a boatload of
extra money stolen from the
taxpayers as columnist Diane
Francis said in the Financial
Post.

Martin waxes philosophi-
cally about the benefits of
tax cuts over debt repay-
ment. He is being courted
by all manner of special
interest groups looking for
government handouts. All
the while the police, whose
job is to prorect the public, .

-are being choked to death

by diminishing dollars.
Pm not taiking about
opening the vaults for the

See RCMP page 10

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