Documents obtained through access-to-information legislation show Public Safety initially allocated $120,000 for the two-day event in Ottawa that took place in January and drew about 250 stakeholders from across Canada, the United States and overseas.
About six months before the event, the department sought another $12,000 to cover the cost of travel and accommodations for guest speakers and $25,000 for translation services. Interactive voting technology to “allow participants to immediately see others’ views on an issue” and “make the discussions more dynamic,” cost another $11,000, while a “working dinner” to showcase research projects on policing issues by Canadian masters and doctoral students cost $12,000.
In September, the government approved another $47,493 for hospitality services at the Delta Hotel where the event took place.
Despite the irony, acting deputy minister Graham Flack indicated in a memo to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews that the department “successfully negotiated with the hotel to keep catering costs significantly below Treasury Board standard cost guidelines” and that the costs fall within the department’s annual cap for travel, hospitality and conferences.
The summit marked the launch of a national effort to reduce rising policing costs at the federal, provincial, territorial and municipal levels in an era of declining crime rates.
It drew police chiefs, mayors, public safety ministers and policing experts from across Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and New Zealand to discuss issues such as employing civilians and private security guards to do tasks currently performed by police officers, and creating tiered police forces whereby lesser-trained auxiliary constables can, for example, take on tasks like school liaison duties.
Meanwhile, outspoken Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page is expected to release a report on the cost of criminal justice expenditures in Canada on Wednesday and on Thursday, the government will table its budget, though few expect it will include concrete measures to rein in police costs.
Spending estimates released last month suggest the RCMP budget for 2013-14 will actually be $204 million, or eight per cent, higher than last year’s early estimates. The total RCMP budget is pegged at $2.8 billion, according to main estimates that don’t include additional funds that often come later in the year.
According to the estimates, Public Safety’s budget for “countering crime” will decrease by about $20.3 million in 2013-14. A big part of that decrease, however, had to do with the sunsetting of a funding agreement for First Nation’s policing. Under fire over the cuts, the government said it would maintain the funding for the next five years.
The documents, however, note the department “will aim to increase the effectiveness of the criminal justice system through exploring innovative cost-effective approaches to policing and through crime prevention initiatives.” In an interview, Toews wouldn’t get into specifics about the upcoming budget, but suggested it won’t involve direct staffing cuts.
“We’re trying to focus on administrative savings. I don’t believe there’s anywhere in my department that we have cut back on front-line policing,” he said, adding investments in prevention is a priority.
“We’ve certainly been very big on alternates to policing in terms of crime prevention. That’s been a very big aspect of our overall agenda, whether it’s tackling youth crime and keeping kids out of gangs, so we’ll continue to see, I think, very healthy investments in those types of initiatives.”
The House of Commons public safety committee, which was left off the summit invite list to the dismay of opposition critics, is now hearing from witnesses on how to cut policing costs and the NDP public safety critic admits it’s likely too soon for any major cost-cutting initiatives. That said, he’s dismayed the government has already said it won’t renew the $400 million Police Officer Recruitment Fund that allowed provinces to hire an additional 2,500 officers. Quebec, in particular, credits the fund for helping create specialized squads to address organized crime and street gangs and has raised concerns about the cuts.
Experts commend the government’s overall plan to initiate a nationwide discussion on police costs which have skyrocketed, in large part due to unforeseen pressures resulting from the Internet age and the myriad of additional tasks police officers have taken on in recent years. Still, they agree it’s too soon to expect concrete action.
“My guess is that very few yardsticks will be changed for policing at this juncture as the recent summit feedback and fallout is just going through the system and so it’s early days on the public safety reform front,” said Paul McKenna, a lecturer at Dalhousie University in Halifax who moderated one of the summit panels.
“For now I believe that we’re entering an analysis phase where academics will be asked to study promising international models to see what’s ‘do-able’ in a Canadian context.”
University of Ottawa associate criminology professor Michael Kempa said a lot of the changes will have to come at the provincial and municipal levels since they are responsible for the bulk of policing across the country. The federal government, however, ought to look at appointing a civilian board of governors, not unlike municipal police services boards, to oversee RCMP spending which, he said, is “absolutely astronomical” and for which the RCMP is currently accountable only to the minister.
Cyber-security, financial crimes and terrorism are areas of policing that are “booming” and may see some additional investment, but he expects it’ll be another year before any major changes come to the current policing model.
Original Article
Source: leaderpost.com
Author: Tobi Cohen
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