海角社区官网

Chow and TPS members sharing a stage would have been unthinkable one year earlier, when she spent the weeks leading up to her first budget locked in a bitter standoff with the force and its union after rejecting their demand for additional funding.

Chow ultimately backed down and gave in to the police request in 2024, but this time听鈥� to the consternation of some 海角社区官网progressives听鈥� the former NDP MP didn’t publicly push back.听More than a month before the budget launch, she agreed to add $46.3 million to the TPS’s 2025 operating plan, bringing it to $1.22 billion.

Critics听of the growing police budget attribute the mayor’s change in approach to what they describe as the “enormous pressure”听the force put on听her last year. Chow’s handling of the TPS spending in her second budget 鈥� which goes to council Tuesday 鈥� can’t be uncoupled from the 2024 dispute, but according to city hall insiders her decision was influenced by a number of factors, including an improved working relationship with the police, support for the spending among some parts of her political base and an overhaul of the TPS oversight board.

“There’s a list of actions since that fight” in 2024 that paved the way for Chow taking a different tack this year,听said one source familiar with her thinking on the issue, and whom the Star granted anonymity to discuss sensitive political matters.听听

The 2025 police budget increase is a 3.9 per cent boost over last year, which the service says is necessary to bring its officer complement up to levels required to keep the city safe. The figure doesn’t include wage hikes expected as part of TPS members’ next contract, which could cost the city tens of millions of dollars this year.

Police ramp up pressure

According to former mayor听John Sewell, co-ordinator of the 海角社区官网Police Accountability Coalition, a group that advocates for TPS reform, there’s ample evidence that adding more officers to the street doesn’t improve safety, and the extra funding would be more effective if it were directed toward tackling homelessness and other social causes of crime.听

At a city hall press conference last month, Sewell said听that like previous mayors who he claimed听had caved in听to police funding demands, it looked as though Chow and her council allies were afraid to take on the TPS after the “enormous pressure” the force put on her last year.

Last year, Chief Myron Demkiw warned that the initial version of Chow’s budget posed “unacceptable risks” because it fell $12.6 million short of the force’s full ask, and TPS used its social media channels to advocate for more funding.听

Speaking to reporters last month, the chief denied putting the mayor under undue pressure, and said it was his job to tell policymakers what resources the TPS needs to do its job.听听

“I would not characterize that as a campaign,” he said.

The 海角社区官网Police Association, meanwhile,听has boasted that its 2024 campaign to sway councillors in favour of higher police spending was successful. Clayton Campbell, who became president of the union in October, didn’t agree it was bullying,听however.

Torontonians “want to make sure there’s a proper police budget to keep them safe,” he said, and the campaign was about “empowering” residents “to reach out to their city councillor and advocate for themselves.”听

Avoiding ‘drama’

Chow has emphasized this year’s budget includes significant nonpolice investments that Sewell and other advocates want, such as the expansion of community crisis teams to divert mental health calls from TPS, more youth hubs and violence-prevention programs. But she has asserted that ”

The mayor has stressed that the force agreeing to submit a multi-year hiring plan was key to her supporting the 2025 funding boost. The plan lays out a road map for raising the TPS uniformed complement from about 5,430 last year to 5,935 by 2029, and Chow has said the certainty it provides about how the police will use their additional funding has helped avoid the “drama” of last year.

Chow has also argued that last year’s investment has delivered for residents by enabling police to reduce their response times to high priority emergency calls.听

Demkiw also attributed the lack of friction over the police budget this year to the hiring strategy. “We had leadership from city council in support of a multi-year hiring plan, which we delivered on,” he said.

Campbell, the union president, offered another explanation for why the budget process went more smoothly this year: the addition of Chow’s budget chief and veteran city councillor Shelley Carroll (Ward 17, Don Valley North) to the 海角社区官网Police Service Board. She was appointed to the board 鈥� which provides civilian oversight of the force and its spending 鈥� last April, and was elected its chair last month.听

Campbell said Carroll’s dual roles of overseeing the city budget while sitting on the board made police spending talks easier. “When you have that type of perspective and experience, (the budget process is) going to be a lot more streamlined,” he said.听

Shaking up police board

While Chow has acknowledged that she appointed Carroll to “wrestle with the police budget,” according to sources that was part of a wider shakeup of the police board that has changed the mayor’s relationship with the force.

board last year after the province enacted legislation prohibiting ex-officers from serving on police boards. Burnside, who was appointed under Chow, had been on good terms with the mayor early in her term but unlike Carroll was never a close ally.听

In June, council removed a city appointee who predated Chow, Nadine Spencer, following CBC investigations that raised questions about her charity and business practices. (Spencer called the reports “unfounded” and “baseless.”)听

In an urgent council motion from Carroll that some experts called “unprecedented,” Spencer was replaced by Chris Brillinger, a former senior city staffer who spearheaded poverty reduction and youth equity programs.听

Two sources said the newly constituted police board 鈥� which narrowly elected Carroll as chair in January 鈥� has given the mayor confidence it will hold the force accountable for how it spends its higher budget.

“The chair is now one of the mayor’s people” and Brillinger has “values aligned with the mayor,” which, along with the other two councillors on the board, gives Chow a majority, according to the first source.听

Carroll rejected the suggestion that the new appointees have given Chow more direct control of the board, which Carroll maintained operates independently.

“The mayor has powers of appointment ... and that’s where it ends. We do our board work here at headquarters,” she said in an interview.

The politics of policing

During the 2023 mayoral byelection, Chow’s rivals depicted her as a left-wing radical who wanted to defund the police. But her willingness to support budget increases for the force might also relate to the fact her political base is broader than downtown progressives who want to see police spending reined in.

Chow also won five out of six wards in Scarborough, inner suburbs that often vote conservative and where calls for police reform don’t appear to have as much support.听The mayor has heard from听some residents in those communities that they want more officers, according to the first source.听

“It’s not like all of her voters believe one thing,” they said.

Chow has highlighted that additional funding for the force in 2025 will go toward expanding the community-level policing, in the form of an officer program that embeds police in neighbourhoods to build trust.听 听

There are also signs that the mayor and police leaders have had more time to work together and build up trust since she took office in July 2023 and was quickly thrown into the crucible of the budget process.听

While ongoing contract talks have the potential to derail the relationship, Campbell said interactions between the mayor and the force have improved after a “very rocky” start.听

He recalled that in October, Chow didn’t visit a police officer who was injured in a shooting. But two months later, when a member had a medical episode and died on duty, she attended the procession to the coroner’s office.听听

“It tells you that she’s listening,” Campbell said.

Some advocates argue there are other voices the mayor and council should consider.听Jin Huh, executive director of , noted that 40 per cent of participants in the city’s 2025 budget survey listed policing as the service they wanted to receive less funding, ranking it higher than any other division.听

Huh stressed that her organization believes there is a lot to praise about Chow’s budget, including investments in student nutrition programs, expanded library hours and a TTC fare freeze.听

But she said the mayor and council are “in a position to change the bad patterns” of devoting scarce public funds to police increases year after year at the expense of other services, yet “that openness to have that conversation just doesn’t seem to be there.”听

One thing is clear: not having to wage a public battle over police funding this year has given Chow room to promote other aspects of her spending plan that she hopes will resonate with Torontonians, like improved transit service and more traffic wardens.

“If you’re fighting the cops all the time, you’re not building the case for everything else,” said the source.