Critics say cash-strapped municipalities will have to foot part of the bill
CANADIAN PRESS
The Ontario government wants to hire 1,000 new police officers over the next three years, but critics say cash-strapped municipalities don’t have the money to foot their portion of the bill.
The government will spend about $30 million a year on the new officers once they’re all hired, Premier Dalton McGuinty said today as he announced details of the province’s long-promised plan to hire more cops.
“It’s a cost that will be shared with municipalities, the details of which have yet to be worked out,” McGuinty said.
“We’ll work with municipalities to make this happen.”
Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter has warned that not all municipalities, particularly those in smaller northern Ontario communities, will be able to take part in the plan because they may not be able to afford it.
Ottawa deputy police Chief Larry Hill said his city will have a hard time finding the money for new officers that he admitted are badly needed.
“It’s always a challenge for us to come up with funds for officers,” he said.
Hill acknowledged that municipalities would rather see the province bear the total cost, “and we’re looking forward to further discussions with the province on just how that funding formula will work, he said.
“But 50 per cent is better than no per cent.”
Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion described the plan as “a form of downloading” if the province doesn’t fully fund the new officers.
The tax base for municipalities is stretched to the limit and they simply don’t have additional cash to fund the hiring of these officers, McCallion said.
“The province has got to rethink the funding completely and we the municipalities will insist on it.”
New Democrat Peter Kormos called the announcement ``disappointing.”
“At the very best he’s promised fifty-cent cops to police forces across the province,” he said.
York Region plans to hire 67 more officers in each of the next four years, and police Chief Armand La Barge hopes those will be partly covered by the province’s new initiative.
La Barge said he believes his municipality will be able to come up with the cash.
“I’m confident that our council would support that,” he said.
Half the officers hired will go to community policing, while the rest will target key areas like youth crime, dangerous offenders, guns and gangs, marijuana grow operations, domestic violence and child pornography, McGuinty told the Association of Ontario Chiefs of Police.
Although crime rates in the country are declining, “there’s no reason to become complacent,” he said.
“Some of our greatest challenges - domestic violence, dangerous offenders, youth crime - remain problems. And new or growing threats - grow ops, gangs and guns, and the use of the Internet to lure children into harm’s way - cannot and must not be ignored.”