The B.C. Ecosocialists have only been in existence since October, but they're already prepared to shake up the status quo around policing.

This weekend, the relatively new provincial political party announced that it wants to reform the governance of municipal law-enforcement agencies.

This comes in the wake of the Vancouver Police Department's recent refusal to adhere to a city council budget demand.

Facing a $136-million annual shortfall, Vancouver city council recently voted to trim the VPD's annual allocation by one percent.

But the VPD refused to do this. And it's been backed by the police board, seven of whose nine members appointed by the provincial government.

Mayor Kennedy Stewart chairs the police board and there is one other city representative.

The B.C. Ecosocialists have described the VPD's refusal to accept a budget cut as a "brazen and public defiance of the principle of civilian oversight".

The party's spokesperson, Stuart Parker, said in a news release that "police culture needs to be torn out root and branch and replaced with a new kind of law enforcement".

"One of the first steps in that process needs to be the democratization of decision-making around local law enforcement," Parker declared. "That is why we support direct election of local police boards starting in 2022, using a voting system designed specifically to ensure the proportional representation of low-income and racialized communities, like the Cumulative Vote system the courts have imposed to address inequities in parts of the United States.

“If we are already [electing] school trustees, regional district representatives, parks commissioners, mayors and councillors, there is no reason not to directly elect police board members.”

In a statement last month, the chief of the Vancouver Police Department, Adam Palmer, said that 97 percent of the budget is "non-discretionary".

"Crime has not stopped," the chief said. "Calls from the public have not stopped. I appreciate the hardship faced by employees of the City, the library, and the Park Board who have recently received lay-off notices. I do not want to minimize the impact the pandemic has had on these employees and their families.

"However, it’s important to take into consideration that there was a corresponding reduction in their workload due to closures as a result of physical distancing rules. This has not been the case for police."

In 2019, the VPD budget was $324.4 million, including $22.9 million in recoveries.

This year, the department anticipates recoveries of $25.2 million in a $340.4-million budget.

Back in 2010 when the city hosted the Vancouver Olympics, the budget was $193.1 million, according to a financial statement posted on the police board's website.

The one percent budget cut would translate to about $3.4 million.

However, Palmer put the figure at $8.5 million after accounting for cost increases beyond the VPD's control, such as salary increases mandated through arbitration.