Coun. Markus Chambers says Winnipeg should consider adding more police to its force.
It could be a tough sell given the growing costs of policing and a city government that appears to be buckling under the weight of a structural deficit.
Still, with growing crime rates and rising police overtime costs, the idea can’t be dismissed out of hand.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES
If city council decided to increase its police complement, who would pay for it?
“At a police level, you have to look at (if we need to) start adding more officers to the complement to reduce the amount of overtime,” said Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River), who serves as chairman of the Winnipeg Police Board.
“We should consider it. We should look at similar cities, in terms of population size and … complement size that provides that service.”
Like most cities in Canada, Winnipeg has fewer police officers per capita than it did a decade ago. In 2023, Winnipeg employed 172.9 police officers per 100,000 people, well below its peak of 214.2 in 2012, Statistics Canada figures show. That decline followed a national trend that saw per capita policing fall to 178 officers per 100,000 people in Canada last year from a 20-year high of 203 in 2010.
The decline was driven by several factors, including rising police costs (which were gobbling up increasingly larger shares of municipal budgets), and calls for alternative ways to address crime, such as reducing poverty and tackling mental health and addictions. A so-called “defund the police” movement in recent years has also put pressure on municipal officials to curb spending on law enforcement.
With crime on the rise again in Canada, including in Winnipeg, some politicians might be rethinking how smaller police forces can cope. From a dollars-and-cents perspective, hiring more cops could save taxpayers money by reducing overtime costs, which have soared in this city as calls for service continue to rise.
Winnipeg used to have one of the highest numbers of police officers per capita among major Canadian cities. That’s no longer the case. It’s now closer to the middle of the pack.
Montreal continues to be one of the heaviest-policed cities in Canada, with 221.1 cops per 100,000 people in 2023. Calgary still has among the fewest police officers per 100,000, at 153.1. Winnipeg is more in line with cities such as Edmonton (177.9) and Regina (173.9), but below Vancouver (184.1) and Halifax (183.2). Toronto polices its city with 167.8 officers per 100,000 people.
Winnipeg has higher crime rates than most other major Canadian cities, including violent offences, which often take more time to investigate, particularly homicides. With growing calls for police to crack down on the city’s shoplifting problem, the demand on policing has never been greater.
The question is, if city council decided to increase its police complement, who would pay for it? City hall is struggling with its worst financial crisis in years, as growing expenditures continue to outpace limited, property-tax-based revenues.
The city has almost drained its financial stabilization reserve, which it has increasingly relied on to balance the books, and appears to have no plan what to do once that money is gone.
The provincial government, which already covers a portion of the city’s policing costs, could step in with more funding. The NDP government has already increased its contribution to policing in Winnipeg to help curb retail crime and address the rise in violent offences.
The province has the growth revenues to possibly increase that funding further. But it also has pressures in other areas, particularly in health care, to worry about. The provincial government also has a $796-million deficit to slay and a growing debt load that could soon draw the ire of credit-rating agencies unless the NDP makes significant progress toward balancing the books.
It hasn’t helped that the province, mostly under the previous Progressive Conservative government but also by the NDP, has cut taxes by more than $1 billion in annual revenues (financed through borrowed money). That has left government with far less flexibility to reduce the deficit, fund health care or increase police funding.
More than anything, the City of Winnipeg needs a new funding deal from the province that would give it a share of growth revenues, such as income and sales taxes, not only to pay for policing but to fund its entire operations. Until that happens, or unless the province steps in with specific new funding for policing, it seems unlikely city hall could even consider expanding the size of its force.
tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca
Tom Brodbeck
Columnist
Tom Brodbeck is a columnist with the Free Press and has over 30 years experience in print media. He joined the Free Press in 2019. Born and raised in Montreal, Tom graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and commerce. Read more about Tom.
Tom provides commentary and analysis on political and related issues at the municipal, provincial and federal level. His columns are built on research and coverage of local events. The Free Press’s editing team reviews Tom’s columns before they are posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press’s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
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