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'This is not sustainable': 'Rolling Thunder' policing budget concerns police board chair

"I think we need to have a dialogue with other levels of government — with the provincial, federal, and municipal — to see how we move forward."

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The “Rolling Thunder” rally cost between $2.5 million and $3 million to police, the chair of the Ottawa Police Services Board said on Tuesday, a sum that raises the question of whether Ottawa taxpayers will continue to be burdened by similar events in the future.

Eli El-Chantiry, chair of the OPSB, lauded the police planning and response to the “Rolling Thunder” rally and said the board had provided the Ottawa Police Service with the resources it needed to keep the event from spiralling into a repeat of the “Freedom Convoy” occupation.

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“We were prepared this time around,” he said in an interview. “I think we had the proper plan in place … I believe the messaging has been clear. We’re not going to repeat what happened to our city in January and February.”

The total cost, which is still being tallied, will be significantly lower than the $36.5 million it cost to police the “Freedom Convoy” protests, which both federal and provincial officials have said they would help foot, according to El-Chantiry.

But the “Rolling Thunder” costs could still approach $3 million, El-Chantiry said, making it a much more expensive event than most protests or rallies, in part because of the assistance of officers from other police services who were called in to support the OPS.

“This is not sustainable,” El-Chantiry said, “and, from what I’m hearing from the interim chief, we may see other types of activities happening. I think we need to have a dialogue with other levels of government — with the provincial, federal, and municipal — to see how we move forward. How often can we go back to the RCMP and OPP and other municipal police and cover costs? We might have to do it with our own staffing at some point, (and we need to) make sure we have enough resources.”

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Several city councillors said on Tuesday they, too, were concerned about the ongoing toll these protests and rallies could take on the city and its residents, should they continue.

Kanata North Councillor Cathy Curry, one of three city councillors who sit on the police services board, said she was impressed by how prepared police were for the “Rolling Thunder” event.

“I was especially impressed with how quickly the lessons learned from the convoy protest were actioned,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “I am hopeful that future protestors will see Ottawa as a place where any unlawful behaviour will not be tolerated. I share the frustrations of many who recognize the costs to the City of Ottawa, Ontario and Canadian taxpayers, business owners and residents of Ottawa who, in the end, really pay for the human and financial costs of these ongoing protests.”

Capital Councillor Shawn Menard said the police response to “Rolling Thunder” was better than the “Freedom Convoy.”

“It was handled better than the first convoy,” he said, “and just goes to show that, even without the Emergencies Act, a city strategy could have been executed instead of three weeks of occupation and harassment that our residents endured.”

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He did, however, hear of residents who had been harassed when motorcycles and rally participants blocked Lees Avenue and disrupted residential streets.

“The concern for the future in my view is the disruption to residents’ and workers’ freedoms with the use of vehicles and the far-right hate that is part of these rallies,” Menard said. “We have protests all the time in Ottawa we need to manage, but I think this particular kind will fade.”

Rideau-Vanier Councillor Mathieu Fleury said in an interview that he, too, was refreshed to see Ottawa police execute a clear plan to manage the rally participants and help maintain a peaceful atmosphere at a service Sunday morning at the Biker’s Church.

Fleury said protests in Ottawa had long been a concern of his, dating back more than a decade, when he noticed that community police officers were spending dozens of days a year policing protests on Parliament Hill instead of in their neighbourhoods.

“We’re the capital, yet our police force is locally funded,” Fleury said. “It is unfortunate that the capital city does not have the right funding and governance structure to be what it needs to be … (It) needs to be responsive and responsible as a capital city with risks that, like last weekend, are going to become a lot more frequent.”

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