Police board approves $320-M budget

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This article was published 03/12/2021 (1758 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Police Board has approved a $320-million budget for policing next year — a whopping 26.8 per cent of the city’s operating budget.

Police Chief Danny Smyth, who appeared before the board Friday, said he expects police brass will have to find $9.1 million in savings to stay within that amount.

Several speakers at Friday’s meeting were critical of the high cost of policing.

James Wilt of Winnipeg Police Cause Harm, called for the police board to propose a 10 per cent cut to the 2022 budget, capping police spending at $280 million.

“Practically, this will require a hiring freeze, layoffs, vacancy management, and service cuts — things that have demanded of every other department during COVID-19,” he said.

“The police keep getting paid more and more money to do less and less of what they even claim to do, although they will never miss an opportunity for special duty policing at grocery stores and vaccine centres —which are all pensionable earnings of course, which means more costs for the city in the future,” he said. “On a purely financial basis, this is completely unsustainable and necessitates drastic change.”

Smyth said such concerns are held by a small group of vocal opponents, and not the wider Winnipeg populace.

“The notion that we don’t need police — it’s entertaining stuff on the internet, but it’s not based on reality,” he said. “

There’s plenty of content and rhetoric on the internet, but it doesn’t represent the larger community.”

In terms of the current budget year, Smyth said his team had found a way to save the $6.1 million requested by the city: overtime will be reduced, job vacancies will remain unfilled and he expects a boost in revenue from special duties, which includes when officers stand guard at vaccination sites.

Recently, the city’s finance committee approved a $7.29 million over-expenditure for policing to close out the 2021 budget, which was estimated to be $9.6 million over budget.

In September, Smyth had cast doubt on the ability find savings. He said the service was under financial pressure because traffic enforcement revenue had dropped and the overhaul to the pension plan had been scrapped.

“We proved… we were able to find $6.1 million. We will have to do some of the same things we did this year next year, and we’ll try our best to make those cuts,” Smyth said.

Police board chairman Markus Chambers commended the police service for finding savings in the current budget year.

An issue that will undoubtedly complicate police budgeting is current contract talks for a new collective agreement, which expires at the end of this year. Smyth wouldn’t comment on bargaining but said he was optimistic.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca