By Ian Holmes

Nanaimo council cuts four jail guard jobs, ending gender specific policy

Oct 25, 2016 | 4:41 PM

NANAIMO — A controversial decision by Nanaimo city council will see four full-time jail guard positions eliminated, along with a longstanding gender specific policy.

Council sided with a core services review recommendation on Monday night to cut guard staffing at the RCMP detachment, which casts aside a 12-year-old policy of having one male and one female guard on-duty at all times. Axing jail guard jobs will result in potential annual savings of $360,000, according to a city staff report.

“I am extremely disappointed in our council,” said coun. Wendy Pratt, noting the change will negatively impact vulnerable women. “I do not believe this is the right way to go. I think this is a huge step backward.”

In a pair of tight 5-4 votes council decided to scrap the status quo policy of a male and female guard on duty at all times. They also approved another staff option of scrapping four full-time guard positions. Monday night’s decision spawns from a recommendation from a third party core services review which was endorsed by council in May.

Coun. Pratt strongly opposed the proposal during a lengthy debate.

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“I wouldn’t want to be the person on the floor naked and having somebody looking at me. It’s bad enough when another woman would be looking at me,” said Pratt. “I would not want another man looking at me if I ever ended up in that very difficult circumstance.”

Coun. Jerry Hong, who voted the other way, questioned why Nanaimo has been on its own when it comes to a policy of having both a male and female guard on duty.

“I have no problem being the frontrunner and being the leader and trying different things for our community, hopefully others will catch on,” said Hong. “But if no one else catches on, I have to question that.”

CUPE Local 401 president Blaine Gurrie says he was “shocked” by the decision. Gurrie states that they are currently “reviewing their legal options”. He says the decision is being reviewed to see if it is allowable with their collective bargaining agreement with the city.

However, Gurrie says it would be more difficult to have a decision like this reversed, noting in this case positions are being eliminated as opposed to contracted out. Gurrie says their guards have informed the union that having only one person on duty will put them in a very difficult position.

“The second person is necessary. The guards do a lot more than just monitor,” said Gurrie. “They clean the cells, they help with booking, they perform other services down there. And that becomes virtually impossible to do when they are required to monitor, especially when you have high risk people in there.”

Gurrie said upwards of seven guards could end up losing their jobs, noting two temporary positions and casual jobs will be affected as well.

News of the decision to do away with the gender specific jail guard policy was also met with swift negative reaction on social media. Dozens of posts in the Facebook groups A Better Nanaimo and Nanaimo Talk strongly criticized the move.

Coun. Diane Brennan echoed that sentiment on Twitter following the meeting.