It looks like the Steveston outdoor pool will have extended hours once again next year – a decision that caused the Richmond city 2023 budget to go up a smidgeon.
In their deliberation on next year’s budget, looking at an increase of 5.88 per cent, Richmond city council decided to add 0.01 per cent - $27,000 - to continue extended hours at the popular outdoor pool.
City staff reported the extended pool hours have been a success, but they were still not recommending doing the same this year. Given the tight economic outlook and high budget increase, they were looking for cost savings.
City council, however, decided this item was worth adding in, despite an almost two per cent budgetary increase over 2022.
The suggestion, however, by Coun. Carol Day to add an extra social planner – at $150,000 – wasn’t supported by the majority of council.
The extra social planner would have focused on research planning to understand “the increasingly complex and diverse planning and social issues that impact Richmond’s most vulnerable,”
Mayor Malcolm Brodie pointed the budget already includes a poverty reduction planner and social equity coordinator, and he didn’t think the city could afford to hire yet another person in this area.
“From my point of view, that’s plenty in that area,” he said. “There will never be enough but that’s all we can have this year, as far as I’m concerned.”
Police, E-Comm drive budget increases
Key drivers for increasing the budget are higher RCMP and E-Comm (9-1-1 service) costs, the latter of which will go up $1 million next year.
Coun. Kash Heed, who is a former police officer and West Vancouver chief constable – as well as a former solicitor general – said the E-Comm budget needs to be scrutinized.
He has been appointed to the board of E-Comm, replacing Coun. Bill McNulty.
“The due diligence has to be done with respect to what E-Comm is set to do, what it was meant to do and how it can deliver a sustainable service to Richmond,” Heed told council at the budget meeting.
Two-thirds of the E-Comm increase is a result of a collective bargaining agreement with its union, while the rest of the increase is technical changes to its system.
E-Comm, which handles police, fire and ambulance calls, is being mandated by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to overhaul its system, which will modernize large aspects of it – like having the technology to know where people are calling from – and expand it to allow other emergency services to be included in the system.
Of the 9-1-1 calls that come to E-Comm, about 63 per cent are for police, 31 per cent are for paramedics and six per cent for fire departments.
Earlier this year, E-Comm made the decision to keep ambulance calls on hold as they said serious police issues weren’t being dealt with while 9-1-1- operators were waiting for ambulance dispatchers to pick up calls.
The budget is scheduled to be finalized at next week's city council meeting.
