Edmonton city council sets police base budget at $407M for 2023
Natasha Riebe | CBC News | Posted: June 8, 2022 2:00 AM | Last Updated: June 8, 2022
Starting point allows for certainty, predictability, councillors say
The Edmonton Police Service will start 2023 with a base budget of $407 million, the same amount it worked with this year, city council agreed at a meeting Tuesday.
The base budget can be adjusted throughout the next four-year budget cycle, city managers said.
Coun. Ashley Salvador said the base amount would provide certainty.
"It's very clear, Edmontonians absolutely expect us to deliver policing as a basic core service and adequately fund police," Salvador said at the meeting. "They also expect us to make sure that we're getting a good return on our investment."
For the past two years, the police budget has been a hot topic in the public and at city hall, with a push to redirect resources toward social and community agencies.
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Coun. Aaron Paquette said the starting point for police is useful as the city continues to develop its community and well-being strategy, which council passed last month.
In the strategy so far, council approved $8.7 million in funding for 11 projects, including microgrants for community groups, support for an Indigenous-led shelter and additional help in responding to drug poisonings.
"Times are changing, even what we define as policing is changing," Paquette said.
The police operating budget has gone up every year, from $378.6 million in 2019 to $407 million in 2022.
Council reduced the increase by $11M over 2021 and 2022 and redirected that to community safety and well-being initiatives.
Coun. Sarah Hamilton said after years of budget increases, finances have started to level off, noting that council and the public have talked a lot about public safety in the past month.
"But we, unfortunately, in my opinion, have not spent a lot of time talking about how to change the outcomes for our community in the long term," Hamilton said. "We've spent a lot of time actually defending the status quo."
Funding model
Council agreed the police budget should be based on a funding model, as recommended by city managers and outlined in a report to council.
It differs from other departments, which must submit requests for specific amounts of money for specific projects.
Andre Corbould, the city manager, noted an auditor's report found a funding formula allows the service to be more effective and flexible in using money where it needs.
Hamilton said under the funding formula, EPS takes on the financial risk, including the varying costs of special events and public safety needs in the community.
"It makes the police more accountable because they have to give their best estimate on the resources they need to provide policing to the community," Hamilton stated in an email.
Coun. Andrew Knack advocated for a revised formula that incorporates more of a community safety and well-being approach in partnership with social organizations.
"It's not just EPS who's doing this work," he said. "They are doing important work, dangerous work, work that needs support but we also have these other groups that are often the ones that get cut when times are tight."
Council also agreed to a subsequent motion proposed by Paquette — to look at other Canadian jurisdictions with a population of 500,000 people or more and how they are funding the police.
'It's the differences that are intriguing," Paquette said. "In the differences we may find approaches or concepts that we have not seen before."
He asked to see the information by this fall, ahead of budget deliberations for 2023-2026.