Council to vote on reduced Halifax Regional Police budget increase after heated debate

The proposed Halifax Regional Police operating budget is headed back to Regional Council for further approval after an in-depth debate that left more questions than answers.

During a meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners (BoPC) Wednesday night, commissioners debated a revised proposed HRP budget increase of $1.36 million over a target set by the municipality’s finance staff, which equals about a $384,00 increase over last year’s budget.

However, part of the discussion included how the increase would be spent — something police chief Dan Kinsella objected to.

“I’ve been in this business for almost 36 years, I don’t ever recall in the business, not even in the three years that I’ve been here almost, where the board has provided operational direction on the deployment of police staff,” said Kinsella.

Kinsella’s initial budget request came in at $2.9 million over the allocation of $87,830,000 set by finance staff. That target allows for a proposed tax increase of 4.6 per cent.

Kinsella has said he needs the money to fund much-needed service enhancements, which would include hiring 26 new officers. Those officers would include two sexual assault constables and two hate crimes detectives.

A series of debates and public hearings followed, with the majority of citizens who presented to both the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners (BoPC), and Regional Council’s budget committee calling for any increase to be redirected to support police reform and detasking recommendations.

Those recommendations are included in the recently published report by the Defunding the Police subcommittee.

1:56 Proposed $2 million increase to Halifax Regional Police budget turned down

The BoPC narrowly passed the initial offer, which would have resulted in an increase of $1.98 million over last year’s budget, but regional council referred that proposal back to the board with a limit of $1.39 million over the target for service enhancements.

The revised HRP budget proposal came in under that limit with an increase of $1.36 million.

Kinsella has repeatedly stated that officer staff shortages due to varying issues like mental health and stress leave have pushed HRP frontlines to a critical point.

The revised HRP proposal presented to the board on Wednesday kept 12 patrol constables, a hate crime unit detective constable and other policing roles, but came with a significant reduction in emergency response (911) communicators, a victim services and domestic violence coordinator, along with sexual assault investigators.

Commissioner Harry Critchley raised concern over the decrease in 911 communicators, along with the loss of a role designated to support victims of domestic and intimate partner violence.

That led to him putting forward a motion for service enhancements to be further decreased by about $100,000 with eight patrol officers instead of 12, and the keeping of a victim services case worker, along with increased emergency response communicators.

“I think it’s an important middle road. It starts to fill some of that backlog as it relates to patrol, it fills the victim service position that I’ve highlighted as being very important,” Critchley said.

Kinsella opposed the motion, stating that he was of the understanding that the board could only authorize the dollar amount of the police’s budget, not how to spend it.

He also objected any reduction to the proposed 12 patrol constables, stating it would come with public safety repercussions.

Commissioner Becky Kent, who voted in favour of HRP’s initial budget request, sided with Kinsella and questioned whether Critchley’s motion was out of order.

Chair Lindell Smith stated he understood the board’s authority to be in line with what Critchley was proposing.

An overall consensus on the board’s authority over police budget spending wasn’t reached and Critchley ended up rescinding his motion after Chief Administrative Officer Jacques Dube, “pleaded” with the board and police to reach an agreement.

That plea was made with looming HRM budget deadlines in mind and council expecting an answer from the board during Friday’s budget committee meeting.

Eventually, HRP’s revised $1.36 million service enhancement request was narrowly passed, with Critchley and Smith voting against.

Critchley gave notice he will be requesting a motion to implement and independent review of the board’s authority to direct how police budgets are spent.

Regional council will debate the revised budget proposal on Friday.