And Where Is The Pushback From Our Regional Council When It Comes To Saying ‘NO’ To Soaring Policing Costs?
A Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter/publisher Doug Draper
Posted May 20th, 2025 on Niagara At Large
I know this probably isn’t going to go over so well with the people out there who are so afraid they will be robbed or worse that they go to bed at night with three two or three extra bolts locking their front and back doors, but I don’t believe it is so unsafe out there that we should let fear reign over good judgment and throw such large amounts of our regional tax dollars at policing.
I know we need a police service. Every community needs one for reasons I don’t think I need to explain here. And there is no denying we have some crime here. That is true of every region across the country.
We’re not living along the border between Russia and Ukraine here. Does Niagara’s Regional Police Service really need one of these at a cost of $300,000?
But why on earth, in a relatively safe region like Niagara, do we need a police force with an armed tank, with military-style assault weapons, and now, a helicopter, when we have enough problems down here on the ground that need addressing, like too many of our fellow citizens lining up at food banks, too many who are unable to afford a roof over their head or find a job with a livable wage, just to name a few.
On top of all that, for the last three or four years or so, we have had municipal taxes going through the roof at the regional government level with the largest amount of that tax money – by far – going to policing.
Now let me get back to this latest toy – the helicopter that Premier Doug Ford and his Conservatives are reportedly gifting to the people of Niagara with the apparent approval of our Regional Police Chief Bill Fordy for millions of dollars from the province that that comes out of our pockets too.
What isn’t yet clear is how much municipal taxpayers in Niagara will be paying for the facility needed to house this helicopter and to pay for its upkeep and the pilots needed to fly it.
According to the Ford government, much of what adding this helicopter to our Regional Police Service’s growing array of tools is about “border security” (as in aerial surveillance over the border we share with the United States) at which point we should be asking, even if our elected members of Regional Council don’t, since when is a municipal police force responsible for border security?
Isn’t border security the job of our federal government and its federal partners on the U.S. side?
This business of the provincial government downloading more and more responsibilities and costs for policing on local municipalities has gotten completely out of control and we don’t seem to have many voices at the municipal government speaking against it.
Under the Ford government, we have seen, among other things, our Regional Police Service acquire an armoured vehicle or “tank” as some have taken to calling it, for a cost of $300,000 in 2019.
The military-style weapons Premier Doug Ford has pressed Niagara’s Regional Police Service and other police departments in Ontario to buy.
Last year, the Regional Police Service, at the behest of Ford and his ‘law and order’ Conservatives, began the process of spending more than $1.9 million on arming our police officers with semi-automatic, military-style rifles that, up to now, have been part of the arsenal of NATO forces in Europe. The $1.9 million apparently doesn’t include the cost of adding holsters for these weapons in police vehicles and training officers to use them.
More recently, the Ford government, with the blessing of a number of local municipalities in Niagara and across the province, moved to use a so-called “notwithstanding clause” that would override the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and broaden police powers to tear down homeless encampments at whatever cost that would be to municipal taxapayers – not to mention the additional hardship it would place on already struggling homeless people whose circumstances, many experts say, can’t simply be addressed by forcibly pushing them from one place to another.
When it comes to homelessness and other social ills in our communities, the answer for too many politicians and their supporters, especially those on the hard right, is to fan public fear and pour more time and money into policing.
Residents in Niagara have already been seeing municipal taxes over the past three or four years alone rise well above the rate of inflation and one of the biggest reasons for ths is the cost of policing.
In 2024 alone, the cost of policing added up to $287 million of the regional government’s operating budget – about $25 million short of the cost of public health, waste management, transit and road services combined.
Enough is enough.
It is getting tiring hearing our municipal councillors say that when it comes to policing, their hands are more or less tied because that falls under the province’s control.
In a democracy, no one’s hands have to be tied if enough people stand up and speak out , and our municipal leaders have a bigger pulpit than we individuals do to say NO to more costly downloading if they have the will too.
Border security is a federal responsibility
If they don’t, then we will have the last say on how we feel about their lack of leadership on issues like this when we go to the polls in next year’s municipal elections.
And once again, when it comes to border security, that is the responsibility of federal governments on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, not municipalities already struggling to keep the costs for housing, for water and wastewater and for other local services from going out of control.
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Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
For related news, click on the following links –
Niagara Taxpayers Should Not Be Squeezed to Arm Our Police with Military Weapons | Niagara At Large
To read a CBC news report on the response of Windsor city councillors to a similar move from the Ford government to fund a helicopter for their municipality, click on – https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/ontario-windsor-helicopter-police-ford-border-us-trump-1.7537860 . (Note that in this CBC report, the Police Chief of Windsor, like the Police Chief of Niagara, is tickled pink at the idea of getting this new toy at whatever cost to municipal taxpayers.)
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