The State of Canada's Cities and Communities 2012 - FCM

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Chapter 4 Page 1 Chapter 4: State of Policing and Public Safety THERE IS NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT TO CANADIANS THAN THE SAFETY OF THEIR FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES. DESPITE DECLINING CRIME RATES, HOWEVER, THE COSTS OF CRIME MEASURED IN LIVES AND PROPERTY REMAINS STAGGERINGLY HIGH. Canadians have a right to know that governments are making the very most of every dollar they invest in fighting crime and its causes, including everything from adequately funding policing and meeting public-safety obligations, to tearing down silos between federal, provincial, and municipal police forces. Canada’s policing system, however, is badly in need of repair. During the past 30 years, an unsustainable share of Canada’s policing duties has been shifted onto municipalities, either through direct downloading or the inability of an overburdened RCMP to fulfill its full responsibilities. SHIFTING THE DEBATE The recently passed federal Safe Streets and Communities Act sparked renewed public debate about crime and public-safety issues in Canada. The Act has also opened the door to a long-overdue discussion on how governments address crime and protect their citizens. So far, the conversation has occurred primarily on Parliament Hill, and has focused on a narrow band of legal issues. While federal parties are debating new laws, there is little discussion of how to enforce those laws or build communities that are more resilient to crime in the first place. This must change. The Government of Canada, and all parties in the House of Commons, must connect what is said in Ottawa to what is happening on the ground in our communities. All orders of government must support strategies that put Canadians first, and must confront the challenges playing out on our local streets. THE MUNICIPAL VOICE In February 2011, FCM’s President launched a cross-country consultation on policing to kickstart much-needed discussion on what governments are doing to support community safety and crime prevention. Our President met with over 150 mayors and elected officials, police chiefs, police boards, provincial and territorial associations and community stakeholders across Canada to ask if federal, municipal and provincial governments are doing their fair share to ensure that police and communities have the tools and resources they need to keep our communities safe. OUR CHALLENGE Municipal stand-alone police forces provide policing for 77% of Canadians, with the RCMP directly serving another 15% of the population. Municipal and provincial governments also contract services from the RCMP to serve the
Chapter 4 Page 2 policing needs in 15% of our communities. Beyond contract policing, the RCMP is mandated to enforce federal laws in areas such as border services and organized crime, and to provide specialized investigational services through the National Police Services (NPS), including forensic analysis and centralized database services. The RCMP’s national responsibilities have grown substantially over the past decade, and now include such services as the Sex Offender Registry, the National DNA Data Bank, and the Canadian Police Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. As the RCMP’s national mandate has expanded, its resources have become overstretched. Canada’s Auditor General issued a warning about this growing imbalance within the RCMP as recently as 2011. The mounting strain has created holes in the federal policing system, through which a rising share of Canada’s policing duties have fallen onto municipal shoulders. Compounding the problems created by an overstretched RCMP is growing confusion about the roles and responsibilities of each order of government. Amid the confusion, policing and public-safety costs are rising at an unsustainable rate, while the lion’s share of those costs are downloaded onto municipalities. Here are the facts: • Municipalities now pay the salaries of two out of three police officers across the country, while only collecting eight cents of every Canadian tax dollar. • Total expenditures by all police services in Canada have almost doubled in the past decade, from $6.4 billion in 1999 to $12.3 billion in 2009, with municipalities paying for 60% of that increase. • Between 1986 and 2006, real municipal policing costs increased by 29%. This rise was nearly three times the spending increase experienced by the federal government, and nearly twice that of provincial/ territorial governments. 1 FCM, Towards Equity and Efficiency in Policing (2008), p. 17. • Municipal property taxpayers are taking on the federal government’s policing costs to the tune of more than $500 million a year, 1 as local contributions to federal policing grow. Increasingly, crimes traditionally falling under federal jurisdiction—such as cyber-crime, gun smuggling and the drug trade—require municipal involvement. • The five-year, $400-million Police Officers Recruitment Fund is the only source of federal funding for municipal police. • During the past 30 years, federal contributions to RCMP municipal policing contracts have fallen from 50 to 30% in smaller municipalities (those with populations under 15,000), and have fallen to 10% in larger municipalities. • Each border community in Ontario spends upwards of $1.5 million annually from its policing budget to provide law enforcement and support at international border crossings (as first responder to incidents along the border). Recent changes to the Criminal Code have also led to increased costs and responsibilities for municipalities, without providing funding allocations to address these costs. Municipal police are responding to broader and often externally generated threats or problems that are national and even global in origin, but with local impacts. WHERE WE STAND Policing and public safety are the fastest-growing areas in municipal budgets, making up more than 20% of local spending. In many communities, policing costs are rising faster than the cost of health care. Municipalities are facing a fiscal squeeze. Collecting only eight cents of every federal tax dollar, local governments are caught between inadequate financial resources and a growing range of responsibilities, including many offloaded by other governments. When federal and provincial governments do not meet their policing and public-safety responsibilities, municipalities are left to fill the gaps, placing a strain on their already limited capacity to serve families and businesses. Without a new approach, these costs will push property taxpayers to the breaking point and crowd out other essential services.
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Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Message from the
Page 5 and 6: Introduction Communities matter. Fr
Page 7 and 8: Municipalities were collecting just
Page 9 and 10: Introduction IN THE LAST FEW YEARS,
Page 11 and 12: Chapter 1 Page 2 FIGURE 1: TOTAL MU
Page 13 and 14: Chapter 1 Page 4 2. MUNICIPAL REVEN
Page 15 and 16: Chapter 1 Page 6 SIGN TAX Since 201
Page 17 and 18: Chapter 1 Page 8 In absolute values
Page 19 and 20: Chapter 1 Page 10 FIGURE 6: FEDERAL
Page 21 and 22: Chapter 1 Page 12 FIGURE 9: GOVERNM
Page 23 and 24: Chapter 1 Page 14 for provinces, fo
Page 25 and 26: Chapter 1 Page 16 All of the positi
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Page 29 and 30: Chapter 2 Page 2 next two decades.
Page 31 and 32: Introduction TOO OFTEN, GOVERNMENTS
Page 33 and 34: Chapter 3 Page 2 These consequences
Page 35 and 36: Chapter 3 Page 4 2. A VOICE IN THE
Page 37 and 38: Chapter 3 Page 6 As the Task Force
Page 39 and 40: Chapter 3 Page 8 How the gas tax wo
Page 41 and 42: Chapter 3 Page 10 FCM strongly supp
Page 43 and 44: Chapter 3 Page 12 Federal InFrastru
Page 45: Chapter 3 Page 14 8. tomorroW—and
Page 49 and 50: Chapter 4 Page 4 Front-line communi
Page 51 and 52: Chapter 5 Page 2 QOLRS IN BRIEF: RE
Page 53 and 54: Chapter 5 Page 4 THE SQUEEZE ON HOM
Page 55 and 56: Chapter 5 Page 6 CONDOMINIUMS AS CO
Page 57 and 58: Chapter 5 Page 8 RENTAL DEMAND PUSH
Page 59 and 60: Chapter 5 Page 10 Beyond the immedi
Page 61 and 62: Chapter 6 Page 2 Approximately 34 m
Page 63 and 64: Chapter 6 Page 4 to warm several ne
Page 65: Chapter 6 Page 6 REFERENCES Canada

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