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REPORT TO COUNCIL STANDING COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL
SEPTEMBER 18, 2003 |
A Regular Meeting of the Standing Committee of Council on City Services and Budgets was held on Thursday, September 18, 2003, at 9:30 a.m., in Committee Room No. 1, Third Floor, City Hall.
PRESENT: |
Councillor Tim Louis, Chair
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ABSENT: |
Mayor Larry Campbell (Leave of Absence - Civic Business)
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CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE: |
Judy Rogers, City Manager |
CITY CLERK'S OFFICE: |
Denise Salmon, Meeting Coordinator |
RECOMMENDATION
1. Apartment Recycling Collection Contracts (File 3758)
The Committee had before it an Administrative Report dated September 4, 2003, in which the General Manager of Engineering Services presented to Council options for collection of recyclables from apartments in areas I - IV, which are currently serviced by private contractors.
Brian Davies, Assistant City Engineer, Solid Waste, introduced the report and Kevin Van Vliet, Solid Waste Management Engineer, with the aid of a PowerPoint presentation provided additional background on the history of apartment recycling. Mr. Van Vliet advised staff will report back before year end on the results of the tender, requesting bids for 1 and 5-year terms. Dave Rudberg, General Manager of Engineering Services, noted this matter has been discussed with the union.
MOVED by Councillor Bass
THAT the Committee recommend to Council
THAT Engineering Services issue a tender requesting bids for 1-year and 5-year terms for the Apartment Recycling Collection for the areas currently serviced by private contractors.
CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY
2. Health Care Sector: Contracting Out of Security Services (File 4106)
At its meeting on September 9, 2003, Vancouver City Council agreed to invite Roger Kishi, Security Supervisor at St. Paul's Hospital, to the Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets meeting to provide an update with regard to the contracting out of security services in the Health Care Sector and the effects on City resources. The Committee had before it Mr. Kishi's request to speak, accompanied by a suggested resolution for Council's consideration.
Accordingly, Mr. Kishi (materials filed), Tonya McLaughlin, Registered Nurse/Registered Psychiatric Nurse at St. Paul's Hospital Emergency Department and Charline Hooper, Registered Nurse at the Vancouver General Hospital Intensive Care Unit provided their comments and concerns, which included the following:
· experienced and qualified security workers are integral members of the health care team;
· violence, and level of violence, is increasing in our communities and also within the hospital;
· verbal skills and conflict intervention skills used by these security workers often deter the need for physical intervention;
· it is the health care teams' connectedness with in-house security that saves lives;
· hospital security officers are first to respond to fire alarms and give fire officials a full assessment upon their arrival - this interaction will take some time to duplicate if service provider is changed, and would increase fire department response time;
· the irreplaceable relationship and connections with the downtown community will be lost with the hiring of private security services;
· many of the security workers who will be displaced by employees of Paladin are the main wage earners in their families;
· Paladin Security is not hired as part of the health care team and has already subcontracted out some of its services, resulting in broken lines of communication;
· employees of Paladin, many of whom will be students, earn a much lower wage, and also lack the training and experience of the security officers currently working at St. Paul's and VGH;
· arms-length reporting relationship between contracted out security guards and hospital staff will result in delayed response time; and
· any deterioration in the quality of hospital security personnel would directly impact police officers, as the more time they are required to attend hospitals to assist with aggressive patients, the less their availability to deal with other policing issues.
Council members discussed jurisdiction issues related to this matter, and the majority agreed potential costs to both the Vancouver Police Department and Fire and Rescue Services had been clearly laid out by the delegations before Council this day. It was also noted the Police Board is aware of the situation and it will be monitored. It is assumed Fire and Rescue Services will do the same, and therefore a report back from these departments on the impact of contracting out security services St. Paul's Hospital and VGH is unnecessary at this time.
MOVED by Councillor Woodsworth
THAT the Committee recommend to Council
WHEREAS public safety is of primary importance to Vancouver City Council, and
WHEREAS VGH and SPH have high rates of violent incidents, particularly in the Emergency and Psychiatry Departments, and
WHEREAS Vancouver Coastal Health (VGH) and Providence Health Care (SPH) have chosen to eliminate skilled and experienced security staff as part of the healthcare team by contracting out security services to Paladin Security Group, and
WHEREAS it is commonly known that City resources are under extreme pressures, particularly Police services,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT Council express its concern of the elimination of skilled and experienced security officers from the healthcare teams at VGH and SPH, and
FURTHER THAT Council express its concern that replacing experienced security personnel with inexperienced security personnel appears to have seriously weakened the morale of emergency room and hospital health care staff and thereby appears to put at risk the quality of emergency medical services available to the citizens of Vancouver; and
AND FURTHER THAT these be communicated to the CEOs of Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care.
Carried
AMENDMENT MOVED by Councillor Sullivan
THAT the following wording be added to Councillor Woodworth's motion:
FURTHER THAT Council instruct staff, particularly Vancouver Police Department and Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services, to report on the effects of these changes at VGH and SPH on the City, and to closely monitor and regularly report once changes are implemented.
LOST
(Councillors Bass, Cadman, Green, Ladner, Louis, Roberts, Stevenson, Sullivan and Woodsworth opposed.)
The amendment having lost, Councillor Woodworth's motion was put and CARRIED with Councillors Ladner and Sullivan opposed.
The Committee adjourned at 11:00 a.m.
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