CITY SPARES POLICE BUDGET
Will use reserves to fund outreach
City council stopped short of reducing the Calgary police budget Thursday, following community calls to reallocate money for social organizations and prevention programs.
The city's new community safety investment framework — a measure to tackle gaps in crisis response — will still go ahead. But instead of taking money from the police to pay for it next year, council voted to pull $8 million from reserves.
Police Chief Mark Neufeld said in September that the force would be willing to make a “financial commitment” to look at alternate response models, directly acknowledging that police might not be the best option to help people in a mental-health or addictions crisis. The official police budget submission suggested shifting $8 million to the city framework in 2021. But council voted 11-3 to take that money from the city's fiscal stability reserve instead.
Coun. Jeff Davison proposed using the city's rainy-day fund instead of CPS budget to initially fund the framework. He said he believes in looking for different ways to do crisis response, but “I just can't see taking that $8 million from police at this time.”
His amendment also asked for the police commission to be “encouraged” to participate in funding.
“If we can create and deliver on some milestones that drive outcomes, then we look at how we fund the project going forward — a bit like a business deal,” Davison said.
Council also agreed to ask city officials to consider other sources of funding to commit $10 million toward the framework in 2022 and future years.
Council is responsible for setting the overall police budget but can't tell CPS how to spend its money. The Calgary police commission oversees that process.
Thursday's vote doesn't rule out police funding going toward the framework, but that's now up to CPS and the police commission to decide.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi suggested it's not out of the question.
“The police commission has very, very, very clearly said that they've already set aside this money. So it would be a real surprise to me if they don't move forward with that.”
Coun. Evan Woolley brought a motion to council at the beginning of November that set in motion a conversation about reallocating $20 million of the CPS budget over the next two years.
He voted in favour of the different direction council took Thursday, but he said that reallocation should still happen, and the work that needs to be done isn't finished.
“It's not where my notice of motion that council approved went, and the steps are more incremental than I had hoped for,” he said. “I know there will be a number of people disappointed about this who have advocated really, really hard for us to provide the services that they need.”
Nenshi said the move still represents a recognition that police reform is necessary, and there should be a better way to respond to Calgarians in crisis.
“We need reform. We need policing reform. But the second half of `defund to fund' is the important part for me … I'm not interested in being punitive,” he said.
“Conversations about that word `defund,' whether you like it or don't like it, are not really that important to me. What's important to me are conversations about what are we building to make it better.”
He said the reserve funds still let the city start the work advocates have asked for, and CPS and the police commission will come back to council to outline their plan to contribute to that.
Council also shot down two motions that would have let CPS keep a $10-million budget increase next year. The force has agreed to forgo the previously allocated growth amount, which would have added 60 new CPS positions, as part of cuts across the city to deliver a small property-tax decrease for homeowners.
Neufeld said the extra money wouldn't actually be able to be used to hire more front-line officers next year, since COVID-19 has slowed down the recruitment process.
Coun. Joe Magliocca asked for CPS to get the money anyway, saying Calgarians want more “boots on the ground” even though increasing the police budget would mean a tax increase. “So be it,” he said.
Council voted against it 9-5. Coun. Jeromy Farkas proposed restoring the $10 million in budget growth by reducing the city's arts and culture budget to 2018 levels.
It didn't go over well with most of his colleagues. Only Coun. Sean Chu and Magliocca supported his suggestion.
Coun. Ward Sutherland said he saw the idea as an example of how “ideologically driven” some council discussions have become.
“All the councillors that vote to defund arts and culture, please send us a cheque for every Christmas carol that you showed up … for any celebrations that you went to shake hands, to get those votes,” he said. “You're hypocrites. And if you show up to any of these events in 2021, well, you're a hypocrite.”
If we can create and deliver on some milestones that drive outcomes, then we look at how we fund the project going forward.