'Defund the police' calls in Canada began in 2020. Today, budgets continue to climb

Following the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, anti-racism, violence and police protests gained traction across the world, including Canada, as did calls to "defund the police."

An Ipsos survey that year showed more than 50 per cent of Canadians supported the idea. 

But not everyone saw eye-to-eye on what that phrase meant. Some said it meant budget cuts and reinvestment in other community social programs, while others believed police forces should be completely disassembled. 

Regardless, a Concordia University associate professor says the research he's conducted indicates that no major Canadian city police department has had its funding reduced since 2020. 

"They've all increased their police budgets, but we can see some differences in the rate of increase before 2020 and after 2020," said Ted Rutland, associate professor of geography, planning and environment.

"Edmonton and Calgary were increasing their budgets at a much larger rate before 2020, and since 2020 they've been relatively small increases. So we could see that as a kind of positive change."

Montreal has gone in the opposite direction, according to Rutland, increasing at a relatively small rate before 2020, and then at record levels in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

In a statement to CBC News, the Montreal police force said its budget will reach $787.1 million in 2023, up $63.2 million from 2022 — and that 88 per cent of the new money is related to payroll, including 123 new hires.

The increase will help bolster the police presence in metropolitan Montreal and "combat armed violence," the statement said. 

Likewise, in January a proposal to increase Toronto's police budget by almost $50 million was unanimously passed by the force's board. 

The new funding marks the start of a multi-year plan to "create capacity, make much needed investments in technology, and to adjust to the challenges faced in policing a rapidly growing city," according to a statement provided by the Toronto Police Service on behalf of Chief Myron Demkiw.

"What we can say for sure," about police budgets, said Rutland, "is that around 82 per cent of new money will go toward personnel." Mostly police officers but also civilian employees. 

Another expert says she's not surprised to see police budgets going up. 

Calls to reduce funding were "completely ignored" and "totally overridden" by elected officials, said Robyn Maynard, author of Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present.