Vancouver Police confirm new training academy to anchor Woodward's, replacing former London Drugs space

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Today’s announcement also comes after yesterday’s decision by Vancouver City Council to approve a member motion by ABC city councillor and former VPD constable Brian Montague that sets aside $4 million to the VPD as a one-time investment to cover the academy’s upfront capital costs, such as renovating the former store space spanning 26,000 sq. ft. across two levels, and equipment and other setup costs.

At the heart of the announcement is the creation of a VPD-run training hub that will consolidate and expand instruction facilities.

Rai said the new academy will allow the department to control its own training programs, raise standards across all stages of officer development, and ensure both sworn officers and civilian professionals receive instruction tailored specifically to Vancouver’s policing environment.

The chief pointed to growing demands on curriculum development, increased pressure on training space, and the need for more flexibility in scheduling and cohort size.

Currently, recruits for municipal police departments across British Columbia attend the police academy operated by the Justice Institute of British Columbia (JIBC).

Earlier this month, ahead of City Council’s public meeting on the startup funding decision, JIBC asserted the VPD’s new program is not necessary, as they will be ramping up capacity beginning in May 2026 to train three cohorts of 144 police officer recruits per year or 432 annually — up from three cohorts of 96 or 288 annually. JIBC believes this exceeds the needs of VPD and all other municipal police departments in B.C.

“Starting in May, JIBC’s Police Academy will exceed municipal police departments’ projected recruit training needs, building on the momentum of our September expansion,” said Len Goerke, President and CEO of JIBC, and former Chief of Police for the West Vancouver Police Department.

“Through ongoing collaboration with police partners, we have built a scalable model that meets growing demand while protecting the integrity and consistency of provincial training standards.”

Today, Rai said that while the JIBC does important work, the current model has not kept pace with Vancouver’s needs. He pointed to multiple formal reviews commissioned by municipal police chiefs nearly a decade ago that identified issues that remain unresolved today, such as gaps in self-study, academic structure, driver training, and firearms training.

As a result, said the chief, the VPD already supplements JIBC training with roughly eight weeks of additional instruction — four weeks before recruits attend the provincial academy and another four weeks afterward.

Moreover, he says, under the current training system through JIBC, “we haggle over getting between 32 and 40 seats, so they say they increased the capacity of the police academy. For us, that’s like eight seats extra per class. The math doesn’t line up.”

Rai also suggested that a new VPD academy that can train VPD officers from start to finish will free up JIBC’s capacity to fulfill the needs of other municipal police departments, including the newly created Surrey Police Service, which has significant recruitment needs.

With the new VPD academy, the existing pre-training program done in-house by the VPD will expand and move into the former London Drugs space.

Until the Government of British Columbia grants licensing authority for the VPD to conduct full recruit training from start to finish, new recruits will still attend the JIBC for their approximately nine months of academy instruction. Rai said the department is seeking approval from the provincial government to run its own complete program.

If approved, he said, the VPD could significantly increase its annual intake — potentially training more than 100 recruits per year — and control the timing and cadence of classes to better match operational demands. He pointed to municipal police departments in Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg running their own police training as a “best practice” based on the performance outcomes, instead of B.C.’s centralized academy under the provincial government.

“We’re going to meet all the requirements the province lays out. There’s no issue with the standards,” said Rai, adding that “standards are not going to decrease. They’re actually going to increase.”

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim described the investment as both a public safety imperative and a financially responsible move. By reallocating funds currently paid for external recruit training, the academy is projected to save approximately $270,000 this year alone, with ongoing costs expected to be offset through budget reallocation.

“When we’re able to train our officers, Vancouver becomes a lot safer. The region becomes a lot safer,” said Sim.

Sim also framed the new academy as an anchor for the challenged area — Gastown, Downtown Eastside, and Chinatown — that has struggled with safety concerns, business closures and public disorder.

Residents and businesses have called for greater stability and a more consistent police presence, he said.

“Retail does not create stability. Stability creates retail,” said Sim, addressing suggestions by opponents of the facility that another commercial tenant should replace London Drugs.

The academy, he said, will bring daily foot traffic from recruits, instructors, and staff — “hundreds of people” buying coffee and food from local businesses — as well as structured activity and a visible, uniformed presence in the building and surrounding streets.

Rai echoed that point, saying the new academy in the former store space and the VPD’s new District 5 police operational in a 10,000 sq. ft. office space that is also at Woodward’s will respond directly to community requests for more officers “walking and talking” in the area.

“That’s what the citizens wanted,” said Rai, referencing meetings with local businesses and residents along the area’s Cordova Street corridor. He added that increased visibility typically reduces open criminal activity. “That’s what the leadership wanted… Old school policing.”

“The businesses have asked for it,” continued Rai, saying businesses wanted a greater policing presence ahead of the start of this year’s peak tourism season.

“Residents want active storefronts and a thriving local economy. We support retail returning to this space when market conditions make that possible. But leaving a large anchor unit empty in the current climate is not responsible,” said Brian Davie, president of Gastown Residents Association, in a statement earlier this week.

“A police training academy will bring daily activity, improve the sense of security in the atrium, and help stabilize the area so that new retail and community uses can succeed,” added Davie.

The creation of District 5 specifically relates to establishing a specific policing district for the Downtown Eastside and its peripheral areas.

VPD’s patrol operations across the city of Vancouver are divided into geographical areas. In September 2025, the VPD and Mayor Ken Sim announced the creation of the brand-new additional District 5 spanning Gastown, the Downtown Eastside, Chinatown, and Hastings Crossing. Sim previously said District 5 builds on the success of the VPD’s Task Force Barrage operations, which were first launched in February 2025 to target criminal activity concentrated primarily in the Downtown Eastside.

Last year, the former TD Bank branch space at Woodward’s was also converted into the VPD’s new Gastown-Hastings Crossing Community Policing Centre, which is a volunteer-based community outreach facility. TD Bank’s longtime presence at Woodward’s closed due to the area’s heightened public safety issues, including repeats act of vandalism that damaged the bank’s storefront windows.

With the closure of London Drugs, the remaining anchor tenants at the Woodward’s complex entail the Nester’s Market grocery store and Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts.

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• Former TD Bank at Woodward's becomes new VPD community policing centre
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