City of Winnipeg reports suggests councillors stick with status quo on police funding

After as many as 16,000 Winnipeggers gave their opinions on how the Winnipeg Police Service should get its money, city staff say nothing should change.

Late last year, the city launched a public engagement campaign on possible changes to its funding model for the Winnipeg Police Service, including an online survey and a series of events by phone and online.

Five possible funding models were suggested, but a new report prepared for the city's executive policy committee says there was no firm agreement on which was best.

"Although there was some appetite for change expressed, there was no consensus among those involved in public engagement meetings and/or surveys as to which funding model would be the most appropriate for Winnipeg in the future," Catherine Kloepfer, the city's chief financial officer, wrote in a report to the committee.

As a result, the public service suggests the city stick with the funding model already used — meaning council decides how much money the police service receives, the report says.

The recommendation is based on the budget impacts of each model, the pros and cons of each, and the feedback received from Winnipeggers, Kloepfer wrote.

The report says the current model, which was the one "most accepted" by the public, "provides certainty during the multi-year budget period" and "allows for more public input and consultation" on the police service's budget.

It also allows council to keep control over the budget, "taking into account policy priorities, public consultation and the requirement to provide adequate and effective policing."

The other models proposed would affect the city's mill rate, introduce a new tax, or affect the city's bargaining power on police wages and benefits, the report says.

Council asked city staff in 2020 to look at new, more sustainable ways to fund the police service.

The public engagement on that included an online survey, conducted from Oct. 4 to Nov. 4 of last year by Probe Research. The Winnipeg research firm surveyed 600 people, with a concerted effort to survey Black, Indigenous and other communities of colour, according to its report.

"Winnipeggers generally favour the current funding model, though not with any intensity," Probe Research principal Mary Agnes Welch said Thursday.

Probe's report states those who supported the current model "feel it balances the needs of all city departments and seems like a reasonable approach. However, most cannot articulate the reasons why they find this model reasonable."

While the status quo was favoured overall, there "is an appetite for changes to the model," the report says.