Maybe it’s not fair to compare one project in one part of government to another. It’s a $44-billion enterprise with thousands of different facets. They all have different priorities and most have nothing to do with one another. So they stand on their own.
But still, it gives you pause to look at the plans for a new government liquor palace at Hillside Centre mall while thinking about the closure of the Victoria Youth Custody Centre. One commercial arm of government is building yet another bright new retail outlet in a market that is saturated with liquor stores.
Another ministry is closing down the only youth custody centre on Vancouver Island and is planning to ship problem children to a gang-plagued facility in Burnaby.
Even taking into account the wide scope of government priorities across society, it makes you wonder. Of course, the Liquor Distribution Branch is a commercial venture. The new store will presumably turn a profit and the money will work its way into the government revenue stream and some will eventually be spent on the greater good. And in fiscal terms, the Youth Custody Centre does nothing but cost money. The cost-benefit ratio has been slipping lately as the youth crime and custody rates decline and the facility deals with fewer and fewer clients.
So just going by the numbers, there’s some logic to it. Government needs to make as much money as it can and new liquor stores are a way to bring in revenue.
But in the real world, this looks ludicrous.
There’s a private liquor store across the street from Hillside Centre on Shelbourne Street. There’s a government liquor store a kilometre or so up Shelbourne. There’s a huge “signature store” on Foul Bay Road, about two kilometres away. The one planned for Hillside Centre is even bigger than that. It’s going to be the biggest liquor store in town. There are three more private stores another kilometre further up Shelbourne. There’s another government store farther down Hillside at Blanshard, and it’s in the process of doubling in size. There are more than 50 private liquor stores in Greater Victoria, and 14 government liquor stores. We have liquor stores now the way we used to have gas stations in the 1970s.
By any conceivable measure, the last thing this city needs is a new liquor store. And going by most of the comments over the past six weeks, the need for a youth custody centre is very real, even if the volume of clients is down. Nonetheless, the custody centre will start closing down next month, while work on the liquor store gears up.
Contrast the two statements about the two different moves.
The LDB told the Times Colonist in January it’s one of the largest retailers in the province and has a responsibility to explore real estate opportunities “to ensure it consistently delivers customers an excellent retail experience in locations that will best meet the needs of those customers.”
The Ministry of Children and Family Development said last week it will start transferring youth from Victoria to the Burnaby custody centre on July 3. It said staff have received 90-day layoff notices. They can quit or accept reassignment, or discuss other options.
It said “discussions are continuing with other stakeholders” regarding the temporary holding of youth. That’s a bland way of saying the argument with local police is still unresolved. The plan to hold remanded minors in police cells near adult offenders has been rejected by police, because it’s unworkable. The government holds most of the cards, so it could eventually ram that grossly inadequate makeshift fix through, just as it did the closure.
So a few months from now, a facility that’s scarcely 12 years old will go dark. Young offenders on the Island will be held short-term in police cells and ferried back and forth in sheriff vans for court appearances. It will take a full day for any family to make visits.
And Victoria shoppers will be browsing in the city’s 65th liquor store, saved the inconvenience of driving a block or two to pick up a bottle.
