Matlow proposes capping Toronto police budget at $1.16B for 3 years to fund community health, safety

Mayoral candidate Coun. Josh Matlow is proposing the creation of a $115-million "community health and safety fund" to combat the root causes of violence in Toronto which he says would be achieved by capping the police budget for the next three years.

At a news conference Wednesday, Matlow said "stabilizing" the police budget at $1.16 billion for the next three years would free up funds in subsequent budgets to invest in preventing violent crime in the first place, through avenues like mental health supports.

"We're going to be transferring the responsibilities of the police when it comes to responding [to] and preventing violent crime in our TTC and our neighbourhoods to trained professionals who know how to do it," Matlow said.

"The money needs to follow the service."

The city is facing both a budget crunch and heightened tensions around violent incidents on public transit in recent months.

On March 29, Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie said the city's next mayor would have to slash services without a cash injection from the province and Ottawa. She has called for federal financial support to help the city address a $1-billion hole in its 2023 budget, stemming from pandemic expenditures.

Last week, the city received $235 million from the province to address COVID-19-related operating pressures in 2022, though that was announced in late 2022 and does not decrease the $933-million shortfall in the city's 2023 budget. The 2023 federal budget tabled on March 28 included no relief for this year's shortfall.

In the meantime, violence on the TTC persists, with the city seeing an outpouring of grief after the stabbing death of a 16-year-old boy at a Toronto subway station last month.

Matlow said if elected, he would work with the city's auditor general and the police services board to "support the police in finding efficiencies while ensuring they can focus on the jobs they are trained for.

"There's been too many violent incidents on the TTC and in our neighbourhoods," he said.

"The TTC will be safe when our communities are safe."

Other mayoral candidates have also made pitches to voters in recent days that centred on safety.

Coun. Brad Bradford presented a plan called "SafeTTC Now," which includes proposals like boosting security patrols on the system, installing platform edge doors on the subway, and creating a new agency to improve mental health resources for people in distress.

MPP Mitzie Hunter, meanwhile, has proposed a plan that would pair social workers with transit safety officers, improve data collection for incidents on the system, and the launch of a "community ambassadors" program.

'We cannot allow cuts to police services,' Saunders says

Mayoral candidate Mark Saunders and the city's former police chief said in a statement later that Matlow is taking the wrong approach to policing.

"We cannot allow cuts to police services," Saunders said in the statement on Wednesday.

"Indeed we need more police in our city especially given our expected population growth, but we also need more social and community services on the ground, who work directly with the population in need and that means after 5 p.m. and on weekends," he continued.

"Right now, someone experiencing an emergency or even needs for social support after 5 p.m. or on weekends often only have police or emergency services as their only interaction. We're failing not only those in need, but also,our entire city."

So far, 31 people have registered to run for mayor in the upcoming June 26th byelection. The full list can be found here.