London's 4-year budget approved by council, including $672M boost for police

London city council has approved its budget for the next four years, including the controversial London police budget request for an unprecedented $672 million, despite two councillors making a final attempt to reduce the amount.

Coun. Corrine Rahman suggested an $867,000 cut to funding for police vehicles and equipment, specifically new electric vehicles, which failed 7-8. This is after councillors refused to hear Coun. Anna Hopkins's proposal for an overall five per cent reduction to the police budget.

In her rationale, Rahman said her motion does not impact the need for hiring more officers and that there are other levels of government the police can seek funding from.

The police budget includes the hiring of 97 new officers, body-worn cameras, a training facility, and a new light-armoured vehicle. 

No compromise on public safety say other councillors

During a lengthy debate ahead of the vote on Rahman's motion, while some councillors showed support, others disagreed with the proposed reduction saying public safety is an important priority. 

"I disagree completely with both amendments. I will not support any reduction to the resources required, because when I knocked doors during the election, the number one issue was public safety," said Coun. Steve Lehman, who is also a member of the London Police Services Board.

"It's a situation where our resources in both staffing and equipment are terribly lacking, and I will not compromise public safety."

Other councillors pointed out that other business cases such as transit, libraries, and the conservation authority, were much more scrutinized than the police's business case and felt that it was unfair, they said.

"I wanted to keep trying to at least address the budget cases and and see if there's an opportunity there for the police like we have done with all other agencies — which is to ask them to scale back, reduce and pull numbers out," Hopkins told reporters during a break. 

"We haven't even touched the police budget, which is over 50 per cent of the increase over the next four years, and residents of Ward 9 [Hopkins's ward] are going to feel those impacts."

London police's ask has largely dominated budget discussions, and has received pushback from some community members who say the funds should be directed to other sectors, such as libraries or the arts, which are at risk of funding cuts or no increase. 

Taxpayers can also anticipate property tax hikes under the current proposal that could amount to 33 per cent by 2027. You can calculate how much your property tax could rise under the current budget proposal using CBC London's calculator located here. 

"I did get a lot of pushback. I think with the five per cent because it related to reducing that tax levy overall, and again, it wasn't even considered to be heard," Hopkins said.

However Mayor Josh Morgan later told reporters this was because certain items in Hopkins's motion went against provincial legislation, which requires police services to have a 'next generation 911 centre' and a 'response to an active attacker incidents regulation'.

"I think there's some frustration by councillors because on most of the budgets, we scrutinize them in this room with a few exceptions. With the police budget specifically, the legislation actually says council does not direct how the money is spent. It sets the global amount, but the Police Services board directs that," Morgan said.

"I think some councillors have found that frustrating because unlike significant other portions of the budget where we dig in quite deeply, the legislation doesn't actually assign that duty to us."

The final decision now lies with Morgan who can use his provincially legislated strong mayor powers to veto any changes that were made by council on Thursday's meeting. However, he indicated that he is unlikely to do so.