P.E.I. Opposition makes case for defunding police

Official Opposition leader Peter Bevan-Baker made a pitch during debate in the P.E.I. Legislature Tuesday for his province to join in discussions taking place across North America about defunding police services.

"In many parts of our country, and indeed around the world, there are discussions about redirecting funding from law enforcement to community services," Bevan-Baker said.

"The basic principle of defunding the police is that government budgets and public safety spending should prioritize housing, employment, community health, education and other vital programs instead of police officers," he said, concluding that addressing root causes of crime would be a more humane and cheaper approach to reducing crime.

On the weekend, a majority of the members of the Minneapolis city council said they support disbanding the city's police department, in the wake of outrage and protests around the world following the death of George Floyd after being taken into custody by Minneapolis police.

Floyd, a black manin handcuffs, died after a white officer pressed his knee on Floyd's neck, ignoring Floyd's "I can't breathe" cries and holding it there even after Floyd stopped moving.

Funding from all levels of government

Responsibility for funding police services on P.E.I. is split between the provincial and various municipal governments, with cost-sharing on RCMP services from the federal government.

The provincial budget for 2019-20 included $23.3 million for public safety and policing, and a further $28.9 millionin grants to municipalities, which among other things could be used to support police services.

The most recent policing budgets for various P.E.I. municipalities were:

• Charlottetown, $9.9 million(17 per centof total expenditures).

• Summerside, $4.4 million(21 per cent of total expenditures).

• Kensington, $459,000 (20 per cent of total expenditures).

Bevan-Baker pointed to a national CBC investigation from 2018 which found that 70 per cent of Canadians who died during interactions with police over a 17-year period had issues with mental health and addictions and a disproportionate amount were Black or Indigenous.

"When did the police become front-line mental health workers," Bevan-Baker asked the province's Justice Minister Bloyce Thompson."And do you think armed police officers are in the best position to help individuals who are in a mental health crisis?"

"I believe that police officers are not mental health experts and it shouldn't be police officers doing mental health checks," Thompson responded.

Expert hired, vehicles purchased

He referred to a commitment the PCs made in their 2019 election platformto fast-track the funding and deployment of mobile mental health response teams, as a measure "that will possibly address some of these issues on these mental health checks" involving police.

Health Minister James Aylward said the province has "hired an expert in the field to help lead this initiative" and said "specialized vehicles have been purchased.I look forward to the day that we can actually roll this out."

Asked by Bevan-Baker for his thoughts on redirecting funds on P.E.I. from police to pay for other services, Premier Dennis King said his "own personal view would probably be not much further different from that of the leader of the Opposition."

"I do think we do need to have a safe society, and I think police play a big role in that," King said.

"But I think the overall safety and health of our citizens, probably the last 13 weeks has taught us that we have to be little bit more open to seeing what we can do to improve that."

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