VicPd has responded to questions about why it took so long to deal with a suspicious package in the Yates street parkade on Wednesday.
Police shutdown Yates from Government to Wharf street; evacuated nearby buildings and prevented people from accessing their vehicles and bikes in the parkade for almost 10 hours Wednesday.
Some 300 vehicles were stuck inside the parkade while police worked to determine what the suspicious package was.
VicPD spokesperson Bowen Osoko says their experts determined the package was a threat. "It looked like a bomb it resembled a bomb, absolutely but that's the kind of thing we don't know until it's dealt with."
Once that decision was made the bomb squad had to be called in -- but Victoria doesn't have one. Which means they had to travel from Vancouver and didn't arrive until 6 p.m.
Some say 7 hours is too long to wait for a bomb squad but Mayor Lisa Helps is not one of them. "Running out and creating a bomb squad in relation to a parkade being closed for 5 or 6 hours a really poor way to govern the city."
The Royal Canadian Navy based at CFB Esquimalt is also trained to deal with detonations but needs federal approval for civilian operations which doesn’t come quickly or easily.