An Island Publishers Newsmagazine

October 24, 1990

- JOINT POLICE

OPTION MULLED

IF AMALGAMATION goes ahead eae Const. Rod Faulkner defi) and
Victoria Const. Bruce Kennedy could wear the same shoulder badge —

Greater Victoria Police.

A lay

-n the fifth floor of an office build-
ing in Saanich there is a group of
people who know as much about
the place you live in as you do. In

e many cases, they probably know more.

They know intimate details of your neighborhood.

_ They know what you paid for your house and what
"your neighbor paid for his. They know how many
_ bathrooms you have andhow manybedrooms. _
No, they're not with the Canadian Security Intel-

ligence Service. They are employees of the British

_ Columbia Assessment Authority. It’s their wy to
: know as Same ae sour House and a

Photo by CHUCK RUSSELL

By VAUGHN COCKE
This Week Staff

0 amalgamate or not
to amalgamate —
that is the question.
being mulled over by

police departments and

political bodies in Greater
Victoria. In the wake of the
release of a report on policing

‘by the Ministry of the

Solicitor General, local offi-

cials are making their cases

for or against the creation of
a single police force in
Greater Victoria, which cur-
rently gets by with depart-

tents im  Vactoria,
Esquimalt, Oak Bay, Saanich
and Central Saanich.

Perhaps the best way to look at

the issue — and its accompanying

divergent opinions — is by con-
sidering it a tale of two cities: In

Oak Bay, which has the lowest
crime rate and lowest policing costs

in B.C., it is the best of times; in

Victoria, which has one of the
highest crime rates in Canada, itis

the worst of times.
Not surprisingly, Victoria police

Supt. Doug Richardson is among

the strongest advocates of
regionalization, while Oak Bay
Police Chief Andy Anderson is con-
tent with the status quo.
Richardson admits he favors a
single police force partly for selfish

reasons. Victoria has the highest

eriminal case load in the Capital
Region, and it’s no secret the
department's 159 officers are often
stretched to the limit. But he adds
he’s convinced the whole of Greater
Victoria will benefit from
regionalization.

Continued on Page 3

GOLDENROD: In a world
fraught with danger, seniors
need to be have street smants.
lvy Kent offers some Tips on
Page 6.

BASIC BLACK: When Arthur
finds himself staring at a blank
screen with deadline fast ap-
proaching. he'll look
anywhere for inspiration.
Sometimes he need look no
farther than his feet where
Rufus, the wonderdog, is
snoozing. see Page 7.

SILVER SCREEN: White Hunter,
Black Heart is only one of three
films reviewed this week by our
resident film critic David
Ryland: See Page 12.

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: William
E. Oliver was a latter day
mover and shaker. He put real
estate deals together in Vic-
Toria, Oak Bay and Cowichan
Lake. His story is on Page 16.

CALENDAR: Let This Week help
you plan your week. There’s
lots to see and do in the
Greater Victoria area. Our
calendar starts on Page 14.

1an’s guide to tax assessment:

Bene value.

they can because it's their task to put an assessed
value on your property for the purposes of taxation,
along with the approximately 109,000 other proper-
ties on the assessment roll of the Saanich/Capital
Assessment Area. A new tax roll is produced every
odd numbered year. The two-year system was in-
itiated in 1983.

How the assessors go about gathering the infor-
mation they need to assess property is fairly
straightforward. Just how much you'll pay in
property taxes this year is considerably more com-
plex, but put as simply as possible, gross property
taxes are the product of the tax rate multiplied by
Continued on Page 9