Toronto’s mayor said what she said– and she’s not afraid to say it again.
On Wednesday, Olivia Chow set the record straight following criticism from Toronto Police Services (TPS) over the city’s proposed budget for 2024.
According to her, she isn’t taking away anything from the police, she’s just not squeezing out any extra cash that could be allocated elsewhere.
What this means is the force is actually getting more money then it did last year, however, it’s $12.6 million less than what it asked for after the Toronto police board approved a budget request that was voted on last month to the tune of $1.186 billion.
“Their budget is $1.3 billion dollars. One out of five dollars of your property tax goes to the police. It’s a substantial amount of investment,” Chow told reporters on Wednesday.
TPS has been vocal about its disappointment of Chow’s proposition that is not in line with the board-approved budget.
Which explains why it has been on a crusade to try to convince residents that cutting nearly $13 million will do more harm than good.
“A $12.6 million cut will create unacceptable risks and imperil the Service’s ability to ensure public safety, to offer community policing and to proactively patrol the city,” Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw, said.
According to the force, Toronto only has 37 more cops than it did back in 1999, despite major population growth. Additionally, it claims that for every 600 Torontonians, there’s only one officer available.
Still, residents didn’t seem phased by this and wondered where previous budgets went if not to hire more police officers?
Now Toronto reached out to police to get a breakdown on what previous budgets were spent on and did not get a concrete response.
However, the force did send over a detailed list of what the new requested budget would account for based on gross income for any service-based budgeting.
This includes $565M for 911 response and patrolling, $463.2M in investigations and victim support, $128M in crime prevention, $29.5M in events and protests safety, $63.4M in traffic and parking enforcement and $54.2M in courts and prisoner management.
Chow also discussed what the city will do regarding other services, including paramedics.
“I understand the staffing and the workload is an issue. I understand the offloading difficulties in hospitals. I’ve seen it. It has a significant impact and I’ll continue to work with the provincial government and the hospitals to look for ways so they can offload a lot faster. I really appreciate the work they do.”
She also admits that what these service providers are facing is similar to firefighters, police officers, nurses and teachers.
Chow also acknowledged the hardships faced by residents trying to get by.
“The city is expensive. Our housing costs are expensive and it’s hard for young families to establish themselves in this city.”
Right now, Toronto is facing a financial crisis, a housing crisis and inflation is seemingly at an all-time high.
Ultimately, this leaves Chow with big decisions to make in deciding where every dollar from taxpayers will end up, and who it will serve the most when she delivers Toronto’s final budget next month.
