'Defund police' movement wants social programs to get some of millions spent on police in northeast

Calls to "defund police" which came out of the Black Lives Matter protests are now being heard in northern Ontario.

Some say it's time to look at the millions spent on policing and see if there's a better way to keep communities safe.

Two Algoma University students have been circulating a petition calling for ten per cent of the city funding to the Sault Ste. Marie police be redirected to social programs. They've garnered 2,300 signatures so far.

Mitchell Harris says even if that $2.75 million is redirected to mental health and addiction services, the police would still have some $27 million to protect the city.

"If we are unsafe after all those millions of dollars are being spent, I think it's safer to say that someone isn't doing their job right," he says.

Alec Pachereva says many calls to police would be better handled by social workers instead of officers who only "raise tensions."

"The city's best protected by lifting up our vulnerable and disenfranchised so they have a chance at the good life," he says.

They are hoping to bring more people on board with their idea, build an organization and try to get a discussion going at Sault Ste. Marie city hall.

Mayor Christian Provenzano, who also chairs the Sault police board, says he agrees in principle that "significant investments" are needed to address "large scale societal issues" that would one day mean fewer officers are needed. 

But he says you can't start with a cut to the police budget.

"We have to make the investments first, and you have to make sure that you're dealing with the root causes of crime, before you decrease the ability to deal with the crime," he says.

"And the reality is people will continue to call the police service."

Provenzano says he has long called the increases in police spending "unsustainable" and believes a big discussion of how police forces are structured is on the horizon.

The police departments in the four big cities of northeastern Ontario cost about $126 million, up $19 million in the last five years.

Greater Sudbury police chief Paul Pedersen told a police board meeting Wednesday that costs are going up further during the pandemic, with $320,000 spent on cleaning and laptops for employees working from home, plus a $200,000 drop in revenue from services like background checks.

The same meeting heard that only 17 per cent of the calls Sudbury police go out to are crime-related. 

Pedersen says in the "wake of" anti-racism protests "the focus on the police is appropriate."

"But a knee jerk reaction to slash budgets and cut policing without any evidence, without any support, I'm worried causes more problem than good."

Pedersen says that would likely result in cuts to the community outreach programs that combat racism in Sudbury, such as the diversity and equity sergeant position the police department is creating.

"What we end up keeping standing is the piece that nobody else can do," he says.

"Guns, Tasers and pepper spray."

North Bay police chief Scott Tod says he thinks the best reaction to what's happening with police in the United States is to take a closer look at officer training, including how much time is spent on human rights education.

He says he is happy to have a discussion about how much his police force spends and how the budget has increased to cover mental health supports for officers and assistance to paramedics. 

"Where does the other money go to? And is it going to other social services that support community safety and well-being or is it just an elimination of budgeting for police officers as a form of punishment for what occurred in Minneapolis?" Tod says.

Bill Irwin, a professor in the school of local government at the University of Western Ontario, says this debate has its roots in the social program cuts and municipal downloading of the PC government of the 1990s, which successive Liberal governments did not reverse.

"So the police respond to more and more non-traditional calls. And when the only tool you have left is the hammer, every problem becomes a nail," he says. 

"And more and more pressure on local governments to provide services based only on property taxes."

Irwin says the "defund police" movement could give momentum to settle this problem, but he sees very little appetite from the provincial government on this file, especially with public finances about to get even tighter following the pandemic.

"I think it's going to be very difficult politically because we're running significant deficits at this time, we might even be entering another era of fiscal austerity once we get out of the COVID-19 challenge."