Moving funding from Thunder Bay police to social services is something Westfort’s councillor feels will not happen.
Kristen Oliver tells us cash strapped Thunder Bay pays about 35% of its budget to emergency services, which includes police, fire and ambulance, and it’s the province’s responsibility to handle increased social services.
“The province is, in essence, the one that manages health care. I do have a growing concern that if we start relying on the municipal tax base to provide these services, we’ll start to erode the dollars that we have, which is minimal at best,” says Oliver.
She adds it would require more cooperation with the provincial government.
“If we can do this in a collaborative approach, and listen, then we’re strengthening this community, and we’re strengthening the foundation, and trying to eradicate the drug addictions we have, then in essence we’ll be reducing our reliance on policing,” says the city councillor.
Westfort’s rep points out there are differences in funding formulas between Ontario and Minneapolis.
She also says Toronto is considering reducing its police budget by about 10%, representing roughly $122-million, for youth programs. Oliver says that’s an insane amount of money that would help Thunder Bay, which we “could” do, if we had that capability.
Mayor Bill Mauro confirmed with us he’d speak to this, but that hasn’t happened yet. Lee-Ann Chevrette, with the Crime Prevention Council, told us that group hasn’t met since COVID-19 began, and therefore couldn’t give a comment. She did say the CPC will meet, and will offer its thoughts then.
Many cities around the US and Canada have been feeling some pressure to visit the idea, which began with Minneapolis city council voting to defund its police force over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died while held by police. That city wants to use the money for more social programs.
