Anti-racism advocates `disheartened' by council decision on police budget
Calgarians pushing for police reform say they are “disheartened” with council's decision to dip into rainy-day funds instead of shifting money from the local force's budget toward community supports.
Earlier this month, Calgary police proposed shifting $8 million from their budget for the city's new community safety investment framework, a measure aimed at filling gaps in crisis response, with police Chief Mark Neufeld acknowledging that officers may not be the best option to respond to calls such as mental-health crises.
But last week, council elected to pull $8 million from the fiscal stability reserve to fund the framework, leaving the police budget intact.
Advocates pushing for the reallocation of police money to community supports say council's decision “came out of nowhere.”
It has left some questioning the sincerity of council to respond to concerns of racialized Calgarians who shared difficult stories during a public hearing on systemic racism this summer.
“Without a whole crowd of minorities in their faces, they decided to show their true colours,” said Adam Massiah, CEO of the United Black People's Allyship organization.
“It's clear that, from the outside, whether we are fighting with honey or sticks it doesn't really matter, because at the end of the day they are going to do what's in their best interests.”
He said the most discouraging part of council's decision was that members — who he believed had shown “solidarity” with Calgarians supportive of defunding police — backtracked on their support.
Massiah referenced councillors Jeff Davison, Jyoti Gondek and George Chahal, who joined a live discussion with Calgary's Defund2Fund Coalition earlier in November. The coalition is calling on the Calgary police to reallocate and reinvest some of its budget throughout communities.
Many people feel “deceived,” Massiah said.
“Politicians lie. I think that's one thing that we all realize and we all know,” he said. “It's obviously disheartening and there are a lot of people who are upset about this, but it's definitely not going to go unnoticed.”
Davison said he brought forward the motion to provide one-time seed money from the reserve so council could “find some compromise.”
He said local police were not “unequivocal” in their budget commitment and that pulling funding could negatively affect call times, services and the safety of Calgarians.
“The programming is what is important here, not where the money comes from,” Davison said Saturday. “It really came down to ensuring a program is set up to be successful. Rather than dipping into base budgets of certain departments, let's take one-time capital.”
Last week's vote, which passed 11-3, doesn't rule out police funding going toward the framework. It is now up to the Calgary Police Service and the police commission to decide the next steps.
Massiah said the issue is about more than money.
“This is a symbolic gesture toward minority communities to say, ` We're willing to put skin in the game to fix and address these issues that are happening within our city.'”
He said council could have pushed forward with both initiatives, allocating $16 million toward the framework.
Coun. Evan Woolley, who brought forward a motion in October to shift $20 million toward crisis services from the police budget over two years, expected some disappointment with council's decision.
“To the point of members of the community, where the money sits is where the powers lies,” he said last week. “The power and accountability of the money staying within the police budget as opposed to the power and accountability of council taking that money and owning that budget — that is, I think, where the disappointment will be.”
He voted in favour of Davison's proposal.
Leslyn Joseph, of the Defund2Fund Coalition and vice-president of Calgary's Black Lives Matter chapter, said council's decision “doesn't make much sense” but wasn't surprising.
“We did have allies but, for some reason, Davison threw this motion out there and screwed everything. We were like, `Where did this come from? We thought you were on our side,' ” said Joseph, adding it is unclear who on council is still committed to anti-racism action.
She said the coalition knew it would be tough to achieve its goals in this budget considering the municipal election next year, but are hopeful changes can be made in future budgets.
Joseph recently declared her run for Ward 10 city councillor. The position is currently vacant after longtime Coun. Ray Jones resigned in October due to ill health.
Massiah said there needs to be new people on council to make change.
“A lot of our work has been trying to infiltrate and make change from the outside,” he said.
“I think we are transitioning to try and change it from the inside.”