Some Montreal politicians in the upcoming municipal elections have pledge to increase the police budget, including Mayor Valerie Plante of Projet Montreal and former mayor Denis Coderre of Ensemble Montreal. This comes after a summer of demands to decrease the police budget and reinvest in social housing and other services to reduce crime at its roots. Local 514 investigates.

After a summer of protests and mobilizations to call for demands to defund the police and reallocate funds into community programs and initiatives intended to reduce issues in our society from the root, there has been little effort from our current municipal, provincial or federal governments to do so.

The calls for defunding the police are not new. In the summer of 2020, popularity around defunding the police grew following the death of George Floyd. This drew international attention to police brutality and racial justice, particularly in Canada and the US.

In 2019, Montreal's police operating budget was over $662 million. This is compared to $115 allocated towards social housing at during the same year.

During protests in June 2020, Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante said she was open to redistributing funds, yet in fall of 2020 Projet Montreal increased the police budget by $15 million.

Public safety, which includes the police and the fire department, receives the highest funds compared to other services. 

Statistics from 2020 show that 18% of funds went to public safety, while 10% was allocated towards transportation, and 3% went towards social housing.

This episode of Local 514 looks at the police budget is a popular topic with upcoming municipal elections coming this November. In this episode we speak to community activists, members of Defund the Police and professor Ted Rutland on the future of the police and what living in a society with defunded police can look like.