By Dominic Abassi

Gender-specific jail guarding still in effect, despite Nanaimo council decision

May 5, 2017 | 10:41 AM

NANAIMO — The City has yet to implement a controversial decision by council to end gender-specific guarding and cut staff at the Nanaimo jail.

Deputy chief administrative officer Victor Mema told NanaimoNewsNOW they are working with staff and the union to find the best way to implement the direction given by a slim majority of councillors in October 2016.

The core services review said the City could save an estimated $360,000 per year by eliminating four prison guard positions and ending a 12-year-old policy ensuring there was always a male and female guard on duty.

He said the existing gender-specific policy is still in practice at the Nanaimo jail. The intent, Mema said, is not to simply “do away with that for the sake of doing away with it,” adding people were quick to say the decision was made solely based on cost savings.

“As we’ve been working through the various issues it’s not all about money. It’s about respect, it’s about working conditions. So when we get to the end of the review we should be able to have a balance between the budget, respect and working conditions.”

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CUPE Local 401 president Blaine Gurrie said the union expected layoff notices in December 2016. He said the core review consultants and a subsequent City staff report were off the mark in estimating cost savings by eliminating the gender-specific policy because other protocols around staffing levels weren’t considered.

“We believed all along for the grand majority of the time there’s a second guard on it’s because of those protocols not because of the policy about cross-gender guarding,” Gurrie said.

“We expected management at the time to review those types of numbers that are put forward by an outside consultant and to make sure they’re accurate, operationally feasible and not going to place the public in jeopardy…We don’t think this was a very well-thought-out proposal in the first place.”

Mema was asked why the review that’s currently ongoing wasn’t done before council was put in a position to make a decision.

“Council had information in front of them from the core services review, which was the basis of the decisions. So the direction was go implement this. So we are doing that and it’s a process,” he said.

Mema said even if the gender-specific guarding policy ends he can’t commit to the savings referenced in the core review.

“I never commit to a recommendation that’s coming from somebody else’s review. We are basically going through to say, well ‘somebody said we can save this amount of dollars, is that true?’”

The original decision, passed by a 5-4 vote, was widely criticized in the community and by some councillors.

Mema said the public will be informed of the final practice at the Nanaimo jail once it is implemented.

dominic.abassi@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @domabassi