How Police forces in Canada had ballooned out of control when they were all talking about scaling back
June 17 2016 – Kevin Yaworski
This 2013 Global News article sheds some light on how Police forces in Canada had ballooned out of control when they were all talking about scaling back to try and get back to balanced budgets.
Provincial police forces brace for cuts as federal fund winds up
The Police Officer Recruitment Fund was set up in 2008 with the aim of adding 2,500 more police officers in Canada. The government took down this link but more info is available elsewhere.
The Harper government budgeted $400 million for the fund as part of its tough-on-crime agenda.
Ontario, Quebec & AB got $156, $92 & 42.4 Million respectively, then $110 Million divided between other provinces and territories. Before this Ontario was looking at laying off 125 officers but with the funding they said they planned to hire 329 Officers in OPP, Municipal and First Nations, AB added 83 officers. Did they add the remaining 2088 officers elsewhere? Where are the stats on how much it improved serious crime rates (violent and property)?
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If most of these officers were for fighting serious crime that is fine but was that the case?, was this many needed and affordable? Who payed for these officers and their pensions and benefits initially and later. The public did via federal income taxes and continues to via provincial & city taxes and when that not enough or they waste it then they resort to abuse traffic enforcement.
** Time to make the layoffs that should have happened earlier, scale back to what is affordable and put the limited resources where they needed the most like solving and preventing serious crime. Violent and property crime as per police annual reports have been occurring across Canada at very high rates especially in places like Winnipeg and with bigger social and economic impacts then most realise. Yet there seems to be more and more officers assigned to traffic enforcement with little to no stats showing any safety improvement.
Provincial police forces brace for cuts as federal fund winds up
Related:
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The exploding cost of policing in Canada
CBC News Analysis, Jan 15, 2013, Last Updated: Jan 15, 2013
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/the-exploding-cost-of-policing-in-canada-1.1330251
Canada’s police forces have to innovate or cut back, Toews tells summit
Ottawa — The Globe and Mail, Jan. 16, 2013, Last updated Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013
