Pubdate: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC) Copyright: 2005 Vancouver Courier Contact: http://www.vancourier.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474 Author: Mike Howell, Staff writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) POLICE WORK REWARDED It Was A Week To Remember For Chris Taulu. The community policing advocate received a B.C. Achievement Foundation award Tuesday and learned Thursday that city council will provide more funding for policing centres. "It was a good week, I felt really good," said the 67-year-old coordinator of the Collingwood community policing centre. The award recognized her 11 years of work with the policing centre, where she coordinates crime prevention programs and preaches the dangers of marijuana growing operations. She was one of 39 British Columbians to receive an award in Victoria from Premier Gordon Campbell. An independent panel of community leaders made the selections. Each recipient received a medallion and pin designed by Haida artist Robert Davidson. Meeting the premier was special, but kind of old hat for Taulu. "I know Gordon from years ago. I knew him when he was an alderman. That was even before he became mayor [of Vancouver]. I mean, that's how long I've been involved. I've been around forever." When she returned home from Victoria, Taulu spent Thursday at city hall, waiting for council to decide whether it would increase policing centres' annual funding from $18,000 to $100,000. After a day that started at 9 a.m. and ended at 7 p.m., council voted to increase funding to the city's eight policing centres, including Collingwood. The funding is contingent on each centre providing a business plan-a requirement Taulu joked about, considering the marathon day she and other community policing advocates had Thursday. "We sat there all day-and they talk about us having a business plan and accountability. Listening to them fight...how on earth could they ask that of other people? I just shake my head and say, 'Where are they coming from?'" The money will allow Collingwood to hire a part-time coordinator and possibly open storefront offices in Mount Pleasant and Champlain Heights, Taulu said. The centre already has 250 volunteers and that number is expected to grow as Collingwood expands its programs to other areas of the city. The former elementary school teacher helped open the centre and was the key figure in getting police to create the Growbusters team to dismantle grow-ops. Originally from Fort Frances, Ont., Taulu moved west in the late 1950s to teach elementary school in Squamish. She's had various jobs, including working in a seniors' home and doing office work for a food supplier. She toured the province in the 1980s with a non-profit group to protest cuts to education and to educate parents about working with school boards. Taulu has been a resident of Collingwood since 1972. She raised two children there and lives in a house with her husband, Ian. She has no plans to retire. "I went for my physical last week and my doctor tells me that I'm healthier now than I was five years ago. He said at your age you're supposed to go downhill, and you're just going up hill. I've got absolutely nothing wrong with me." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom