Now that all the tents and garbage have been removed from Regina Park, the work begins to restore the park to its original state.
While the final cost of remediation has not been tallied, it will be expensive according to Saanich Mayor Richard Atwell.
"A proposal at one time was to put down some fire-resistant wood chips after removing a layer of soil like what was done with the lawn at the courthouse in Victoria when that tent city established itself. We don't know yet how much soil has to come out but we're going to put down some kind of ground cover and then we're going to remove the fence and open it back up again."
Atwell says so far policing costs have been estimated at $700,000 dollars, and he doesn't know at this point how much it will cost to restore the park to what it was before the encampment. He says the challenge for the municipality will be balancing those costs with expenditures and services to Saanich residents.