In a vote divided by city lines, Mississauga’s regional councillors send 23.3% police budget hike back to the chief 

Amid pressing socio-economic challenges—high cost of living, unaffordable housing and the ongoing mental health and addiction crises—Mississauga members on regional council voted Thursday to send back a 23.3 percent Peel Police budget increase request for 2025, asking the chief to phase in new hires and look for other savings elsewhere in his department.

Not surprisingly, the vote was divided down city lines with all 11 members from Mississauga who voted for a motion by Mississauga’s Brad Butt to send the budget back (one strangely avoided making a decision) and all 9 members from Brampton voting against the motion. The final tally was 12-11, with two of the Caledon members voting against, and one for, which proved to be the decisive vote.

The motion by Butt, seconded by Mississauga and Regional Councillor Joe Horneck, stated that the police budget should be sent back for review and “is not sustainable or affordable for property taxpayers during very difficult economic times, where housing, food, and other living costs are escalating; seniors and other residents are struggling to stay housed; food insecurity and food bank use is increasing; and our shelter system is at capacity”.

Mayor Carolyn Parrish resigned from the police board last week over the budget request.

(Screen capture Region of Peel)

The proposed police budget alone would require a more than 4 percent property tax increase in 2025, about $250 dollars for the average homeowner.

Stephen Dasko, the Ward 1 Councillor of Mississauga, highlighted that the motion to send the budget back to the Chief was not intended to deny support for the police but rather to address the financial strain on taxpayers, especially those in Mississauga who contribute 62 percent of Peel's police funding; while Brampton covers 38 percent (Caledon is policed by the OPP).

Mississauga members on regional council repeatedly pointed out that the funding split is unfair, as the population of each city is roughly the same; Peel Police data show the number of calls to each of the two cities is also approximately even.

"And the way I see this, as well, in terms of councillor Butt's motion, it's not about not supporting the police. We all support the police," Dasko said, expressing the same frustration he voiced last week during the police budget presentation by Chief Nishan Duraiappah. "We've supported increases year after year, and it looks like there's no stop to it. But this really comes down to a taxpayer issue, because right now, the way things are, Mississauga is paying 62 percent of this bill that everybody wants to, and, you know, come out and start throwing money at, and I get it. We're not looking to take money away at all from anybody." 

He said the existing funding model is not viable; Mississauga council members have presented financial breakdowns from City Hall staff that show its taxpayers would pay more than $80 million less for policing next year if the funding split was 50/50.

"But it's also one where other levels of government have to step up. It cannot be put on the back of the taxpayer on the property tax level. It's just, it's unsustainable at this pace right now, and this might be an opportunity to see if pencils can be sharpened a little bit for now," Dasko urged.

"As I would hope, our three mayors and chair would go and help us advocate to other levels of government not just for the Region of Peel, but for all police departments, because everybody is feeling this pinch right now; crime is going up. We see it right across the board. It's going to be more and more challenging for police to deal with it all. So, I will support this to see if there is a way that they can just have another look at things and bring it back."

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has continued to lobby aggressively for the increase, challenged by critics who point to his political campaigning at all three levels of government, consistently claiming to be tough on crime and pro-police to win support during elections.

"When I look at this motion, I say to myself, how many serious, violent, 911 priority calls are we not able to respond to?” Brown said.

The other eight Brampton councillors at the region fell in line with the mayor, who repeatedly said last term of council that he would line up a slate of members that would support him, as all ten councillors at City Hall have done throughout the current term on Brown’s key issues.

Mississauga’s members on Thursday told a different story, of unsustainable police budget requests—almost 40 percent in increases over two years—that are choking off funding to other critical areas.

“I think that there's a lot that could be said for where the money can go to other places in the budget as well,” Councillor Martin Reid said, mentioning that funding for housing and other human services that are in desperate need of support will once again suffer due to the outsized police request for additional taxpayer dollars.

Mississauga Councillor Martin Reid questioned how funding could be provided for other critical needs if the police budget left no room. 

(Screen capture Region of Peel)

Mayor Carolyn Parrish, who resigned from the police board last week due to the budget request, also pushed back Thursday, pleading with Chief Duraiappah to understand how his request denies funding to areas that the chief himself has admitted are being neglected, forcing his officers to spend the lion’s share of their time dealing with non-crime related calls for mental health crises, homelessness, addictions and other socio-economic challenges.

She also stressed the impact on taxpayers.

"But what we're saying is this is killing us. It's killing the people we represent… 23.3 percent.”

She said the police department should identify spending that could be reduced and consider pacing the onboarding of new officers, instead of hiring 300 in one year, which is what the Chief has requested, despite the inability to graduate nearly that many through Ontario’s Police College or train and equip even half that number which critics have said would be impossible (Brown has repeatedly called for 600 new officers in 2025 which would push the budget increase beyond 30 percent; he has failed to explain how this could be achieved).

"For example, I asked Chief Nish last week, ‘How much are you paying for all the new armour and guns, $9 million? Who told you you had to change your armour and guns, the province?’ So maybe we need to get our heads together and figure out what parts of this budget have been mandated by a bunch of people who aren't putting any money into it," Parrish said.

David Bosveld, a community advocate who has researched and presented data on policing in Peel for years, said while the decision on Thursday to send the budget back to the chief is welcomed, he is doubtful there will be more than a one or two percent reduction, if anything.

“Forget the percentages, because that’s a deception.”

He said the Peel Regional Police budget will increase by about 40 percent in two years, and by 2028 it will reach about $1.2 billion, with far more officers per capita than the forces in York and Durham, and even more than Toronto, whose police budget has only grown by 15.5 percent between 2019 and 2024, while Peel’s will increase by 77 percent.

“This is staggering for first time homeowners and others; this will push people out of the region.” Responding to Brown’s repeated refrain about needing more officers, he said “all the research shows there is no correlation between reduction in crime and the number of new officers hired or the size of increased police budgets. It gobbles up all the funds that can be used upstream.”

Bosveld pointed to a presentation earlier in the regional council meeting Thursday by Food Banks Mississauga, expressing bewilderment that the organization had to struggle to raise “a couple million dollars” while the police asked for more than $144 million extra for the coming year. 

“The Chief himself said 80 percent of work done by officers is not related to crime. They are dealing with addictions and homelessness and people who don’t have enough food. You only have so much money in the pool, do you want it all to go to policing?" 

Bosveld highlighted the claims of Brampton Regional Councillor Michael Palleschi, who on Thursday told the story of his daughter who had been bullied at school, voicing anger that there were no police officers there to intervene.

“Palleschi wants your billion dollar police force to deal with kids bullying kids in the school ground. You think that’s what police are for? 

“It’s a great political speech to say we’re going to hire 300 police officers in a year to show you’re tough on crime.” He questioned how they would be deployed and why the Chief has not provided any details or research to show how the new hires would be used, specifically, to investigate the sophisticated types of crime in Peel that require strategic approaches. Bosveld also questioned why Brown and his fellow councillors from Brampton failed to provide any statistical evidence for the benefits of hiring more officers to reduce the worst types of crime.  

He would also like Brown and the Chief to explain how 300 new officers will be onboarded in one year. “Do you have 300 cars, the training, the equipment, how are you going to get them all trained and deployed, it’s not possible. We know that.” 

The budget will now go back to the Chief and the police board, which could decide to send it to an independent panel for review and a final decision on any reduction to the proposed 23.3 percent increase for the coming year.

“This group of Brampton councillors, one thing they have done is wake up a lot of people—we’re paying attention now.”

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