Toronto: Many financial issues have received great attention in recent years, such as the amount of money the city spends on maintaining security.

Since the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020, calls to cut more than a billion dollars in funding for the Toronto Police Service (TPS) have become a key part of the city's annual budget discussion.

The recent city council, led by Mayor John Tory, rejected these calls twice, and instead voted to maintain or increase the amount of money going to TPS despite efforts by some council members to impose cuts.

With Toronto voters heading to the polls on October 24, this issue is on many minds. And with the city facing a budget gap of $857 million, police spending will remain central in this debate for some years.

The police budget ranked first in the city's annual operating budget, although it was replaced this year by the Toronto Transit Commission. At $1.1 billion, the police budget accounts for 7.4 percent of the city's total operating budget of $15 billion for 2022, or 23.7 percent of the portion directly funded by property taxes. It increased by $24.8 million, or 2.3 percent, compared to 2021.

In other Canadian cities, police spending accounted for 11 percent of the total operating budget in Montreal in 2022, 21 percent in Vancouver, 17.5 percent in Calgary, 9.3 percent in Ottawa, and approximately 18 percent in Hamilton.

TPS noted that the police budget has decreased as a percentage of the city's 2022 budget portion funded by taxpayer money over the past ten years, shrinking from 26 percent in 2011 to 23 percent in 2021, and that this year's increase was less than the 2021 inflation rate of 4.4 percent from the funds included in the 2022 Toronto Police operations budget.

90 percent will be allocated to salaries, benefits, overtime, and other wage-related expenses for approximately 4,988 uniformed officers and 2,400 civilian employees, according to the TPS 2022 budget request.

TPS said the budget increase will allow the service to focus on community policing, the Vision Zero road safety program, mental health training, and the prevention and investigation of hate crimes.

The force said it will reinstate an investigative team to address serious crime trends and strengthen relationships with communities by continuing to implement police reform.

While TPS provided a breakdown of its budget online, critics say it does not include enough details for the public to assess how the money is spent.

Akwasi Osu-Bemba, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto, said that the public has the right to know more about how the police use resources. "How much of their time and our money will be allocated to fighting drug laws, will it go towards police and gangs versus community policing efforts?" he said. "We do not have a good awareness of what the police do with the money we provide them... and more importantly, what the outcomes of police work are."

Groups like Black Lives Matter say that much of the money currently going to the police could be better spent on community initiatives.

They argue that many people from marginalized communities are harmed by police interactions, and that officers are unprepared to provide traffic services, prevent violent crimes, and respond to calls related to mental health, homelessness, and drug overdoses.

The deaths of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Aizah Chaudhry, and Dandre Campbell highlight what can happen when police respond to people experiencing mental health crises.

An extensive Toronto Police report this summer showed that Black, Indigenous, and other diverse groups are disproportionately affected by the use of force and strip searches by officers.

These are just some of the recent incidents that have damaged trust between the police and the people they serve.

On Monday, a group of about 20 activists representing a coalition of community groups organized a protest outside a debate featuring five candidates for Toronto mayor, calling on them to defund the police if elected.

Desmond Cole, an activist journalist and author and member of Toronto's Black community, said what they are calling for does not mean unsafe communities.

Cole said it means taking public resources currently designated for police and punishment and redirecting them to prevention initiatives that focus on the root causes of violence, crime, and poverty, including housing, education, mental health, and other forms of support.

Cole said: "We don't need a billion-dollar police budget if we took care of each other."

On Sewell, a member of the Toronto Police Coalition, said allowing community agencies, rather than police officers, to respond to mental health calls and those involving unhoused people and youth would cost less and lead to better outcomes.

Sewell said: "We don't need armed officers to respond to those calls." The city runs a three-year pilot project for the Toronto Community Crisis Service (TCCS), where mobile crisis teams composed of crisis workers respond to some mental health calls in four areas of the city.

But Sewell said initiatives like this need to be accelerated.

John Reid, president of the Toronto Police Association and also a union officer, said calls to defund the police are "short-sighted" and that the vast majority of police interactions with the public are resolved "to everyone's satisfaction" without the use of force.

Reid argued that TPS needs more funding, not less, because the service suffers from staff shortages and its employees are working beyond their capacity.

According to TPS, the service had 568 fewer uniformed officers and 160 civilian employees last year compared to 2010. Meanwhile, the police had to serve a larger population per officer, and homicides, violent crimes involving weapons, and response times all increased.

Reid said: "If we want to reduce the number of police officers any further, it would be unsafe for communities as a whole [and] unsafe for our officers. This is my humble opinion."

Shortly after the municipal election held Monday, TPS will submit its 2023 budget request, and the next mayor and council will be responsible for accepting, amending, or rejecting it.

Some may find it difficult to swallow a significant increase for some council members depending on whether the city has closed this year's $857 million budget gap.

In Monday’s debate, mayoral candidate Chloe Brown echoed the sentiments of defunding advocates.

Brown said: "It's not just about pulling money from police services but directing it towards mental health care so we can get people off the streets and into supported communities, which leads to reduced costs of hospital and prison treatment."

Jill Binalosa's platform proposes dissolving the TPS unit and instead using $5.9 million to fund Vision Zero projects. In a statement.

Binalosa said the police budget would need to start with a "zero-based budget," assessing what is required and funding only what is justified.

The statement said: "There are many additional responsibilities currently placed on the police that they are untrained and unfit for, and frankly, we don't want to be on their side. I want to work with the police to find better solutions for these areas of work." Edited by: Yusra Barnatf