Citizens Demand That the SPVM's Budget be Decreased Following Previous Promises

The City of Montreal held an extraordinary public council meeting during which Montrealers were invited to share their concerns. Many brought up previous promises that he Plante Administration had made during their first election campaign, and following mandate.

A repeated concern presented by many citizens was the latest funding increase that was provided to the Societe de Police de la Ville de Montreal. The SPVM was given an increase of 63M$, the biggest increase to date across Canada. This, despite gun violence having increased of only three per cent since 2018, being down in 2022, and Montreal having the lowest number of homicide per capita in large Canadian cities.

Community organizations asked the Plante Administration if they would ever commit to reducing the SPVM budget or defunding the police of Montreal in the near future. 

The Plante Administration answered that the reason for such a budget increase was due to gun violence having risen during the period of 2020-2021. According to the councillors, the increase is to preserve the safety of Montrealers and to do prevention work. Dominique Ollivier highlighted that more financing would go towards community organizations, and mentioned that "we can invest part of the budget in prevention, without having to taking a part out of the SPVM's budget."

Organization members responded by underlining to the Plante Administration that in 2020, it had surveyed Montrealers on the subject of the budget of the SPVM, and that 73% of Montrealers had answered that they wished for the police's budget to be reduced.