The results are in from our questionnaire, and we have compiled the responses from City of Victoria mayoral and council candidates about their positions on the police budget.
We received responses from 50% of mayoral candidates and 24% of city council candidates.
Our goal was to ask candidates frank questions about their positions on the police budget. Over the last 6 years, the police budget has increased by 57%, from $54 million in 2018 to $95 million in 2026.
Are candidates in favour of increasing the police budget or not? How will candidates respond when VicPD inevitably demands more money?
Learn more on our website: Why Defund VicPD?
There are other issues that are important for voters to know about. One place you can go to review candidate scorecards on a wide range of topics is LivableCRD.ca. Doctors for Safer Drug Policy also put out a survey asking candidates where they stand on evidence-based approaches to the Toxic Drug Crisis, community safety, and housing. You can find their results on Instagram: Part 1 | Part 2.
How to Read Our Report:
The evaluation methods of this report assess candidate stances on how they will vote regarding the police budget specifically. Please read candidate responses for more information about their stances on social policy approaches to policing.
Many candidates did not respond to our questions. However, a lot of them had views about policing and/or the police budget on their websites. In this report we reviewed the online platform of candidates who did not respond and included that information below.
Some examples of responses that we considered in support of police budget increases include any mention by the candidate of:
- Investing in more officers
- Investing in police reform or technology
- Investing in greater enforcement
- Working with police needs
We are including some symbols as visual aids for readers to help navigate the responses.
✔️ = Responded to our questionnaire
✖️ = Did not respond to our questionnaire
🟢 = Would vote against police budget increase | Would advocate for police budget reduction
🟡 = Unclear position | Supports police budget freeze, Would not advocate for police budget reduction
🔴 = In support of police budget increase | Will not advocate for police budget reduction
⚫ = No information available about position on policing or police budget
Mayoral Candidates
✔️🔴Marianne Alto (incumbent), website
Q: When the Victoria Police Department request another increase in their budget next year, how will you respond?
As part of this year’s budget process, VicPD indicated that their budget request was necessary to match local policing levels to the growth of Victoria and Esquimalt’s population, but that this request was not intended to be repeated in additional years. As such, my response to another request would critically examine the rationale for the increase, and I would assess that request against how additional funds can be used to support better outcomes, records, evidence and more responsible policing. Such funds might, for example, be used to introduce body-worn cameras, which I want to explore in the coming years.
Q: Will you advocate for reducing the existing police budget?
I won’t advocate for reducing the existing budget, but I will act to fund and support heavy municipal investment in services like peer outreach and CRCL mental health teams to reduce situations requiring police intervention. As investment increases in community-based crisis response services, police resources can be focused on their primary responsibility – responding to crime. Additionally, police budgetary decisions can be challenged through a lengthy provincial appeal process, usually ending in favour of the police budget, forcing the municipality to pay regardless. I will continue to build relationships with police leadership and members, board, community advocates, and other agencies to support police accountability and a transparent, responsible use of funds.
✔️🔴Lyall Atkinson, website
Q: When the Victoria Police Department request another increase in their budget next year, how will you respond?
I fully support the Victoria police department all non-Victoria criminals will be removed from Victoria.
Q: Will you advocate for reducing the existing police budget?
As for the budget, it will stay the same.
✔️🟡Mike Harris, website
Q: When the Victoria Police Department request another increase in their budget next year, how will you respond?
I would review any future budget request on its merits. That means looking carefully at the rationale for the request, demonstrated service needs, staffing and operational pressures, measurable outcomes, and the impact on taxpayers and the City’s overall financial position. I don’t believe it would be responsible to commit in advance to either approving or rejecting a future budget increase before seeing the request and the evidence supporting it. Public safety is an important municipal responsibility, but so is ensuring that public dollars are spent responsibly and that investments across City services are balanced and sustainable.
Q: Will you advocate for reducing the existing police budget?
I am not committing in advance to either reducing or increasing the existing police budget.
My approach would be to review spending carefully, assess whether resources are being used effectively, and consider the appropriate roles of policing, bylaw enforcement, health and social services, and community-based supports.
The objective should be a safe community, effective services and responsible use of taxpayers’ money. Budget decisions should be based on evidence, demonstrated need and measurable results rather than predetermined funding positions.
✔️🟡Gregoor Miller (no website)
Q: When the Victoria Police Department request another increase in their budget next year, how will you respond?
Libraries, parks (I gave my opinion about a downtown park to the Victoria News), arts and culture as well as schools need more money. The question is how and where do we get the money from.
When you informed me that policing accounts for 24% of the city’s operating budget, something is wrong. One group would hold the same demonstrations week after week. I asked a police officer there who paid for the police protection. He said mostly the province. Neither the city nor the province has the money to pay for that. Perhaps one demonstration followed by a letter writing campaign would be more effective and cost efficient. This is just one way to save money, coupled with other ways the money can add up.
Back to the increase of 11.6 million dollars in 2026 bringing the total to 95 million dollars seems disproportionate. A good question might be why did council and the mayor vote for it. I am assuming there are a few thousand homeless people in Victoria. How much of that money can be used to build S.R.O.’s ( single room occupancy). I would like to get the homeless off the streets into housing or if unfit, at the Eric Martin [Victoria Mental Health Centre] or in jail. Speaking of the Eric Martin, it needs to be updated in terms of size and staff. Again, where would the money come from?
I will need to see the city’s budget to make an informed decision where to cut, add, move money around.
In answer to your questions, Question 1: When the Victoria Police Department request another increase in their budget next year, how will you (I) respond? One word, NO!
Q: Will you advocate for reducing the existing police budget?
As I mentioned I will need to see the city’s budget before doing anything. I do not want what happened in Seattle to happen here.
The following Candidates did not respond to our questionnaire. We reviewed the campaign websites of each candidate who didn’t respond and highlighted anything that mentioned the police below, including the “Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan“.
✖️🔴Bruce McGuigan, website
Under Priorities: Ending Homelessness – From Managing It to Ending It:
- As Mayor, I will strengthen existing coordination by establishing a standing operational table of City, police, health, housing and outreach leaders for recurring problems, with named responsibility, regular follow-up and shared information where law and privacy permit.
- Compassion does not require accepting violence, harassment, predatory behaviour or serious public disorder. Harmful behaviour should be addressed based on the behaviour, not housing status, using police and bylaw when enforcement is needed, and health or treatment responses when the underlying problem requires care rather than enforcement.
✖️🟡Darren Gervais-Harrison, website
Under Platform:
- Downtown after dark…Just as importantly, businesses, outreach workers, bylaw officers and police need to be working from the same playbook.
✖️⚫Christopher Hanna – No website
✖️⚫David Johnston – No website
City Council Candidates
✔️🟢Susan Kim (incumbent), website
Q: When the Victoria Police Department request another increase in their budget next year, how will you respond?
City council accepted VicPD’s surge budget this year. Simultaneously, many important services in Victoria are dramatically underfunded, including those that address the root causes of many issues to which police should not be the first call. We can reduce crime with a number of interventions, large and small, from a guaranteed livable income to youth programming to adequate health care. We know this is a more effective approach to a healthier and happier society in the long-run–which is to say, one that’s safer and more trust-based.
Additionally, I have no qualms about voting against these budgets because I’m not an operational expert on police services. I actually think it’s more prudent to make the province decide through the Section 27 appeal. In the past, they’ve disagreed with VicPD’s budget asks and refused to fund some positions. I would continue to rely on that expertise where mine is lacking. I anticipate voting against budget increase asks, particularly given my answer to the next question.
Q: Will you advocate for reducing the existing police budget?
Yes. I would press VicPD to find administrative efficiencies while advocating for a freeze on officer numbers after a record increase in frontline officers this past term. I understand that VicPD will be undertaking an extensive resource allocation review to cost out expected budget asks for the next few years. I would push for this review to be done by a third-party.
I would also like VicPD to write consistent business cases for their proposed civilian positions. For example, I agree that VicPD should hire more privacy officers in order to maintain accountability and timeliness in fulfilling FOI requests, but what other positions that I’m less familiar with will have funding asks? I’m most uneasy with those line items, and an external perspective would help me evaluate those requests more fairly.
✔️🟢Peter Rose Gibbs, website
Q: When the Victoria Police Department request another increase in their budget next year, how will you respond?
VicPD just received a major funding increase; meanwhile, there are many important but dramatically underfunded services in Victoria that would address the upstream causes of many issues police respond to. Dumping millions more into police budgets completely misses the mark if we want to reduce crime. Ensuring affordable housing, investing in quality mental health and addictions support services, and reducing income inequality are all much more cost-effective and compassionate ways to address these kinds of challenges.
That said, social movements that promote care-based approaches over carceral ones have largely failed to win over anything close to a majority of the voting public, including in a fairly progressive city like Victoria.
As a result, Victoria For All doesn’t think anything that “responds” to an effort by VicPD to seek an increase in budgets is likely to succeed in blocking it. Rather, we believe we must begin efforts to get residents onboard with a Care For All agenda so a majority of city council can be mobilized to vote against an unnecessary budget increase, as we would.
Should we be elected to city council, we would be excited to work with grassroots allies on how we can effectively increase public awareness of the key facts of the matter:
- Victoria has the highest per-capita policing costs in B.C.
- An upstream and care-based approach is more effective and cost-effective.
Q: Will you advocate for reducing the existing police budget?
Yes. I would press VicPD to find administrative efficiencies while advocating a freeze on officer numbers after a record increase in frontline officers this past term.
The root of the police funding question is the anti-democratic governance structure of police boards. We will work within the City of Victoria and with allies across B.C. to push for the democratization of police boards, as well as to end provincial overrides of municipal police budget limits. The province is well aware of these issues, as this approach echoes recommendations the Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act made in their April 2022 report, most of which haven’t been acted upon.
✔️🟡Shona Dion, website
Q: When the Victoria Police Department request another increase in their budget next year, how will you respond?
After following the police budget closely this year I would advocate to not increase it. After listening to Police Chief Wilson, I believe that we are using our police service as a catch-all for many services unnecessarily. It is not so easy to explain over an email, but I would like to see more information shared with the public on alternatives to calling the police. Not many people know that Victoria has community health services available as an option to assist with individuals experiencing non-criminal challenges instead of calling the police. Creating an awareness campaign for the general public around police services, mental health supports, and other levels of community engagement is a topic I am interested in pursuing if elected to council.
Q: Will you advocate for reducing the existing police budget?
No response
✔️🟢Martin Girard, website
Q: When the Victoria Police Department request another increase in their budget next year, how will you respond?
I steadfastly oppose any increase in VicPD’s budget.
Q: Will you advocate for reducing the existing police budget?
I already advocate for reducing the existing police budget in favour of social programs which would reduce poverty [and] crime. I would like to add that I seek the position of director of the police board, which is the civilian oversight body in charge of overseeing the police department’s finances; if successful, I would be in an ideal position to call for just that.
✔️🟡Steve Filipovic, no website
Q: When the Victoria Police Department request another increase in their budget next year, how will you respond?
I will work in the interests of Victorians of lowering Policing costs by lowering the demand for Police Services. They are a very expensive tool to use regarding the Poverty crisis because Poverty isn’t illegal. The key aspect to achieve this lies in serving the changes necessary to return our Social Services to reasonable. The City lost the right to police the streets for vagrancy during the Charter Challenge that demonstrated that services were substandard, unsafe and de-humanizing. The City should have remedied those shortfalls re-designing the systems. This would mean everybody gets something worked out for them, the needy get help, the mentally ill get the services they need and the lost regain some structure. We have been maintaining a large number of Canadians in dire situations. The solution lies in honouring the intent of the Charter Challenge. As City Councillor I will work towards that goal.
Q: Will you advocate for reducing the existing police budget?
I will advocate to lower several budgets, so the City can invest in housing solutions and mental health facilities. Once the Canadians out in the cold are taken care of the demands on several budget items will fall, including Policing as they now spend a significant portion of their time on the issue, which isn’t illegal. The Charter Challenge was almost 20 years ago, the use of the Parks was supposed to be temporary as the City improved those Services. Its past time for that to happen. As City Councillor I will work to achieve this goal.
The following candidates did not respond to our questionnaire. We reviewed the campaign websites of each candidate who didn’t respond and highlighted anything that mentioned the police below, including the “Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan“.
✖️🔴Jeremy Caradonna (incumbent), website
Under Platform:
- Make downtown safer and cleaner – Advance and adapt the Community Safety and Wellbeing (CSWB) plan
- Work collaboratively with VicPD to address criminal element that embeds itself in unhoused community
- Work with surrounding jurisdictions and the Province to create a regional police force
- Work with VicPD, Bylaw, the Province, and service providers to limit and restrict open drug consumption and to reduce street disorder
✖️🔴Matt Dell (incumbent), website
Under Policies:
- Work with Victoria Police Department to ensure they have the resources they need, while also investing in upstream services and non-policing teams to support mental health and addiction.
- Support the VicPD and downtown police teams to tackle criminal behaviour that harms the small business community.
- Expand investment into alternative response teams, including the IMCRT, ACT Team, PACT Team, so police aren’t doing mental health work.
- Push for a regional police force, so other municipalities support the regional downtown core.
- Invest in downtown safety by implementing the goals of the City’s “Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan,” including to establish another indoor safe-consumption site elsewhere in the CRD to reduce drug use on the street; push other municipalities to develop supportive and shelter housing; support and expand social programs that get people off the street, and increases services to the business community to ensure downtown is clean and safe.
✖️🔴Stephen Hammond (incumbent), website
Under Commitments:
- Continue to support a visible police presence in Victoria’s downtown
- Support enforcement of existing bylaws to address street disorder
✖️🔴Krista Loughton (incumbent), website
Under 2026 Platform:
- Pressure the Province on Regional Policing
Advocate to the province to use its authority to combine local police forces across the region, building on the Victoria and Esquimalt partnership to share costs fairly. - Advocate for Senior Government Funding
Push the provincial and federal governments for capital city funding to reimburse Victoria for the high costs of policing protests and regional events, while transferring mental health and addiction calls to provincially funded crisis teams.
✖️🔴Marg Gardiner (incumbent), website
Under Priorities:
- I have consistently fought for and supported adequate funding for those who keep us safe. I have opposed “defund the police” motions and other ways of cutting the Victoria police budget. I have been a strong supporter of more bylaw and police enforcement on our streets. I believe that it is the duty of all Councillors to give the police the resources they need to ensure that Victoria is a safe place to live and work
✖️🟡Jack Sandor, website
Under Platform:
- Increase funding for CRCL and other non-police response programs, to better respond to community members in crisis: police have a role to play in community safety, but community safety is a complex problem which requires a variety of tools to solve. We must ensure that we are responding to calls for help with the appropriate tool for the job, and not being overly reliant on police for everything. This frees police to do actual police work, instead of demanding that they also act as mental health workers. Investing in these programs leads to better outcomes for people in crisis while making more efficient use of public resources.
- Fight for a regional police force, to increase coordination and lower costs: Victoria taxpayers are unfairly burdened under our current system. By regionalizing our police force, we can reduce costs, eliminate redundancies, and increase coordination for better results for everyone. Criminal activity does not stop at municipal boundaries, and our policing model should reflect that reality.
- Increase traffic enforcement, to keep our roads safe for everyone: Speeding and running red lights has become commonplace, making our roads more dangerous for everyone. Traffic violence is a significant danger that Victorians face every day, and traffic enforcement is key to keeping people safe and preventing unnecessary injuries and deaths. Clear and consistent enforcement helps change behaviour and ensures that traffic laws are more than just suggestions.
✖️🔴Wendy Bowkett, website
Under Priorities
- Provide stable, adequate funding for VicPD, bylaw services, fire services and other frontline safety functions, with clear public reporting through those services on staffing, response times and outcomes.
- Maintain visible foot patrols and coordinated police-bylaw presence in Downtown and neighbourhood areas experiencing persistent disorder.
- Enforce bylaws fairly and consistently, including rules concerning parks, streets, obstruction, open drug use and unsafe conduct, while connecting vulnerable people with appropriate services.
✖️🔴 Melissa Cseszko, website
- Bring safety and care together. I’ll push for a more visible, coordinated presence downtown by bringing police, trained outreach workers and services together so situations can be addressed earlier and with the right response. People in crisis need help, while residents, workers and businesses need to feel safe. Those goals should work together, not against each other.
✖️🔴Jerry Garcia, website
Under Restore Public Safety:
- Strong partnerships between businesses, community associations, VicPD, outreach workers, and health services.
✖️🔴 Bella Lee, website
Under My Plan to Build a Better Victoria:
- No one should feel unsafe in our City. We need to reimagine our regional public safety plan so that Victoria is not shouldering all the costs of policing in the CRD. We need to make our community safer while prioritizing our most vulnerable populations. Police officers are not mental health workers.
- Introduce a regional police force. Not only will it save on costs, but it will keep standards consistent across all the municipalities.
- Addressing crime and keeping people safe. We need to advocate for, and when possible adopt, sensible bail reform policies.
✖️🔴Arthur McInnis, website
Under Public Safety & Order:
- Victoria’s Community Safety and Wellbeing framework (həlisət) has produced a compelling narrative but weak governance. Its major commitments use “soft verbs” to convene, support, advocate without specifying legal authority, measurable targets, implementation timelines, or defined funding models. Over $10 million has been committed without a clear public accounting of what has been delivered. Separately, two VicPD positions were cut despite identified staffing pressures, and frontline responders were not meaningfully consulted before major public safety policy shifts. This plank builds the implementation architecture that the current Council failed to provide.
- Restore Core First Responder Capacity. Restore the two cut VicPD positions as an immediate step toward meeting identified staffing pressures. Police and fire services will be fully funded before discretionary programs are expanded.
- Frontline Consultation Before Policy Change. Mandate formal consultation with police, fire, paramedics, and neighbourhood associations before major public safety policy changes are implemented. Upstream planning decisions will not create downstream operational emergencies.
✖️🔴Dave Thompson (incumbent), website
Under Homelessness, mental health and addiction: Compassionate care and community safety
- Community safety and wellbeing: I support implementing the next stages of the City’s Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan, and I continue to urge senior governments to fix justice-system gaps that affect local safety, like my successful motions on bail reform and fugitive return.
✖️⚫James Harasymow, website
✖️⚫Jason Heit, website
✖️⚫Karen Rothe, website
✖️⚫Herb Collins, website