Police propose lengthy talks about budget
`Much longer, deeper, broader than we've ever done before,' chief says
The Ottawa Police Service on Tuesday proposed a lengthy consultation process to gauge public opinion on its 2022 budget amid criticism that law enforcement receives a disproportionate share of the city's tax funds.
OPS Chief Peter Sloly described the consultations as a “much longer, deeper, broader and more co-ordinated effort than we've ever done before.”
The consultation process, which was presented to the Ottawa Police Services Board's finance and audit committee, “should produce much more information, meaningful decision-making information, contextual information for both the service and the board to make one of the most critically important decisions possible when it comes to the Ottawa Police Service,” Sloly said.
The consultations are to include input from academics and researchers, an audit by a “social technology” company and a plethora of surveys, including one on the OPS website that will be open to the public in late August to the end of September.
It's an effort to gauge reaction to three different budget scenarios OPS will present to the community: a freeze of funding, a 1.5 per cent increase and a three per cent increase.
Community members who weighed in on the proposal Tuesday reiterated a desire to freeze or reduce police funding.
“The voices of community members, of residents of Ottawa have already been explicitly stated,” community delegate Nora Ottenhof told the committee.
“At this point, continuing to spend more money, more time engaging in consultations, especially when it's coming from the police themselves, quite frankly is a waste of taxpayer money and all of our time.”
Nearly 100 people also watched a virtual rally on Tuesday evening against increases to OPS funding. They were scheduled to meet outside police headquarters, but a violent afternoon storm and persistent rain pushed them online.
“I think all of us here today recognize that a safer community and a safer community involves a city without police,” said Sam Hersh, one of the organizers of the rally. “It involves a future where social services and other services have the money that they need, where everyone has access to food that they need, where there's no hunger. We have the resources to do it. It's not really a radical proposition.”
Several speakers at the rally argued for greater funding for social services and expressed outrage at a
proposed three-per-cent increase in the Ottawa police tax levy, which city council will vote on Wednesday.
“We need to address our opioid overdose crisis. We need money in transit. We need more outdoor space for people. We need more recreation services and we need to reduce poverty overall in this city,” said Catherine McKenney, city councillor for the Somerset ward. “Instead, tomorrow's budget directions is asking us to come back with a motion that's the opposite.”
Sandy Smallwood, chair of the committee, said the board was committed to looking at ways to reduce the OPS budget or freeze it at 2021 levels, but cuts are difficult to balance with rising costs — among which, he said, are likely to be police salaries and benefits.
“This is what the service is grappling with,” he said. “We are trying to find ways of reducing costs. At the same time, other costs are increasing. So it's a case of trying to determine if there are things that can be done differently, more efficiently.”
Sloly said the consultation process would help the service deliver a recommended budget to the Ottawa Police Services Board, the seven-member civilian body that oversees the OPS, in November. A final decision on the 2022 OPS budget, which last year climbed by $13.2 million to $332.5 million, will only be formally voted on by city council in December.