Victoria police suggest staggering welfare cheque distribution to address 911 call volume

Victoria's police chief says he wants to stagger social assistance cheques because of the consistent spike in calls to emergency officials on the day the paymentsareissued.

Thecalls include overdose and mental health emergencies for both police and medical responders, whichpolice Chief Del Manak said is having an impact on first responders.

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Manak has written a letter to the provinceasking them to look at theissue and consider piloting a staggered release program to ease the pressure on all emergency response resources in the Greater Victoria area.

"I know what my officers are seeing on the streets and I know the impact it's having on us, but I want to come to the table to have the discussion about how can we work better together," Manak told All Points West guest host David Lennam.

Resources spread thin

The volume of calls varieseach month, sometimes lasting three or more days after the cheques are issued, but the night people receive them has consistently resulted in very high call volumes, Manak said.

"It's taking away from being able to respond to calls in other areas for all of us," said Manak.

He believes a staggered approach would help spread out the calls that do come in.

"Our response rates and times for the other calls now takes a backseat and it's not allowing us to deliver efficient service in and around when these cheques are issued," he said.

The concern around moving to a distributed model for issuing the cheques is the potential effect it would have on those who don'tstruggle with mental health or substance abuse.

"We're talking about the minority of people receiving welfare, let's make that clear," said Al Tysick, who works closely with people on the streets of Victoria through the Dandelion Society.

"There are mums out there or single people out there that are laid off for a while, on welfare and trying to make their dollar stretch for the month I think a ruling like this would just put a judgment on those people as well."

Weekly cheques

He said many people in downtown Victoria who rely on income assistance cheques receive them on a weekly basis, either as part of a court ruling in response to criminal activity or mental health issues or by the decision of the individual.

"I like that system better, where we have some workers working with people downtown and, with their permission, we put their cheques on [a weekly schedule] Rather than making a blanket statement for everyone that's on welfare.We've just got to think about the people that aren't using drugs, that are mentally well and on welfare," Tysick said.

If he were sitting in Manak's seat, Tysick said he would be looking for alternatives too. He's noticed from his position how services are taxed by the spike in calls.

But instead of continuing to focus on controlling money he would prefer to see more effort allocated to enhancing support services for thevulnerable population.

"We'd look at community economic development, we'd look at other things that would actually help them get back to work or school, or get back to programs rather than watching our dollar and that's what the system does right now."

To hear the full interviews listen to media below:

With files from All Points West