WEDNESDAY
July 1 2015 Vol. 106 No. 51
FAMILY CALENDAR 9
Pooch portraits
STATE OF THE ARTS 15
Taxi cab confessions SPORTS 16
Field hockey grit There’s more online at
vancourier.com MIDWEEK EDITION
THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908
Worry over water levels Low supply meets high demand
Jane Seyd
jseyd@nsnews.com
CANADA EH Vancouverites by the thousands will be out in the sun celebrating Canada Day today as the country marks its 148th birthday since Confederation. The flag many will be waving marked its 50th anniversary earlier this year. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET
VPD sees huge drop in Taser use Police watchdogs say decrease linked to strict guidelines, Dziekanski case Mike Howell
mhowell@vancourier.com
Vancouver police have seen a steady decline in the use of a weapon the RCMP made infamous for deploying it in the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski in 2007 at Vancouver International Airport. According to Vancouver Police Department statistics, officers fired a stun gun 47 times at suspects between 2010 and 2014, for an average of nine times per year. That’s a significant decrease when compared to the 93 times police fired the weapon, commonly referred to as a Taser, in all of 2006. “It is tough to say that there is a specific reason [for the decline] but the use of
Tasers is relatively new still, when you consider the use-of-force options that have been and are available to police officers,” said Const. Brian Montague, a media liaison officer with the Vancouver Police Department, in an email to the Courier. “We are constantly trying to improve our training, and part of that is understanding the limitations of use-of-force options. The Taser, while in some cases can be a useful tool, is far from the magic answer to every encounter where police need to take immediate control of a violent individual.” Montague said officers assess the type of offence, weapons involved, actions of the offender, other force options available and “small details like the type of clothing worn
by a suspect” before firing a stun gun. “The Taser’s limitations and the officers understanding and knowledge of those limitations are likely a big factor, along with other training in mental health, crisis intervention and de-escalation, and use-of-force options,” he said. Freedom of Information documents posted on the VPD’s website indicate the department was equipped with 150 conductive energy weapons, or stun guns, in 2014. A total of 128 officers are certified to use the guns, according to the department’s annual report on use of the Taser, which is filed with the police services division of the Ministry of Justice. Continued on page 5
Faith moves houses Faster and for More Money* *Based on 2014 VVW Detached + Condos + Townhouses sales, the average 2014 sale price in VVW was $1,229,955. The average sale price vs. list price of Faith Wilson Group’s 2014 VVW sales was 1.29% higher that the MLS® average. The MLS® 2014 Average Days on Market (Detached, Townhouses, Condos) was 46. The average D.O.M. of Faith Wilson Group’s 2014 VVW sales 86.6% less than the MLS® average.
An unusually hot, dry start to the summer, with no rain in sight means officials are keeping a close eye on Metro Vancouver’s water supply. A warm, dry winter that resulted in below-normal snowpack and rainfall has combined with soaring water use across the region as temperatures have risen. “We’re monitoring the situation daily,” said Darrell Mussatto, chairman of Metro Vancouver’s utilities committee. Water reservoirs — including Seymour, Capilano and Coquitlam — that serve Metro Vancouver’s 2.4 million residents are currently sitting at about 83 per cent full, which is near the low end of a normal range. But the forecast for a hot dry summer and current water use patterns aren’t encouraging. “We’re at historic lows of our creeks and streams running into our reservoirs,” said Mussatto. In addition, “we are using 17 per cent more water than we were last year,” he said. Year round, Metro Vancouver sucks up an average of one billion litres of water a day. The current average is closer to 1.5 billion litres, with a season high so far of 1.57 billion litres on June 13. On the plus side, Mussatto said the region has made positive changes to water use patterns in the recent decades. The amount of water used per capita has dropped significantly, for instance. In the mid-1980s, before conservation made a dent in public consciousness, Metro Vancouver users flushed, sprinkled and showered their way through 743 litres per capita daily and almost double that in summer. In contrast, the average per-capita water use in 2013 was about 471 litres. But because the region’s population has also boomed, so has overall water consumption. Our overall use of a billion litres a day is more than 25 per cent higher than it was 30 years ago. Continued on page 7
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