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."