VANCOUVER SUN FILES Policing costs can’t be eliminated until until police report back to council on current costs, city officials say.

Vancouver bar owners want to know why they’re still being charged almost $1 million a year for what were supposed to be “temporary” policing costs, even though police received a massive increase in the city’s 2005 budget.

“It’s been a year and a half. It’s time to end it,” said John Teti, owner of the Gastown bar Sonar and head of a 25-member group called Barwatch. “My understanding was that this was supposed to last for a year, until police were up to their full manpower. They’re now up to that, plus they are getting 100 officers over the next two years.”

The city allowed bars to start staying open until 4 a.m. in the summer of 2003. Police said it was costing them a significant amount of money to provide enforcement, partly because so many officers had retired and late-night shifts had to be covered through overtime, and partly because of the problems caused by thousands of bar patrons all spilling onto the street at once in the early morning hours.

The city negotiated a temporary fee with the owners for the extra costs and eventually cut the hours back to 3 a.m. to try to reduce some of the problems.

Bar owners who chose to stay open until the new 3 a.m. closing limit get charged on the basis of number of seats and how many nights they are open to that time. Some pay as much as $6,000 a month.

But even those who pay much less say it’s an onerous user fee that has to end.

“It’s almost become the status quo,” said Vince Marino, co-owner of the Pumpjack.

Although his bar is part of the gay-entertainment district on Davie Street, which typically does not see the kind of crowds or rowdy behaviour that police say is a problem on Granville Street or in Gastown, he pays about $650 a month so he can stay open late on Fridays and Saturdays.

But the city’s chief licence inspector, Paul Teichroeb, said he can’t eliminate the fee until police come back to council with a new report on policing costs, as was agreed last fall. That hasn’t happened yet and he has no information on when it might.

Councillors say there might be a case for adjustments, but they need more information.

Coun. Tim Louis said if the costs have dropped, the fees should be recalibrated.

But he doesn’t think they should be eliminated.

“If the bars are open for longer hours at the bar owners’ request, it should not be passed on to taxpayers.” He said he doesn’t want the city grabbing money that it isn’t entitled to, but “I’m certainly not looking to give the bar owners a free ride.”

Coun. Jim Green takes a slightly different position. Although he, too, said he needs more information, he said he doesn’t support user-pay police.

“Once the situation gets to some level of normalcy, I would like to see that they do not have to pay.”

He said it’s not just a bar’s hours that create policing problems.

The way it is managed and the crowd it draws can also create a need for a higher level of policing, even if the bar closes earlier.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005