Police chief’s job threatened

Mayor Rob Ford gets a visit on Budget day from Chief of Police Bill Blair at City Hall in this file photo.

RICK EGLINTON 

Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew Staff Reporter

 

Toronto police chief Bill Blair’s days may be numbered.
City councillor and vice-chair of the Police Services Board Michael Thompson told the Star in an interview Saturday that if Blair can’t offer the budget cuts city hall needs, then a change in leadership may be required.
In his latest budget proposal for the Toronto police, released Friday, Blair asked for an increase of 1.5 per cent in 2012, rejecting the 10 per cent reduction the city has been demanding of all its departments and agencies.
“It flies in the face of all of the discussions we have been having with the chief up to this point,” Thompson said. “If the chief is not capable of doing the job then it’s probably time for us to look at some other options and maybe have someone else doing the job.”
Blair could not be reached for comment.
Thompson is one of Mayor Rob Ford’s strongest allies at city hall.
The annual net operating budget for the Toronto police is about $915 million, 85 per cent of which is salary and benefits. The chief’s proposed increase would add an extra $14.3 million to the budget.
The force has already instituted a two-year hiring freeze, eliminated management jobs and cut overtime spending in an effort to cut costs.
Blair said in the proposal that a 10 per cent cut, made as part of Ford’s campaign promise to stop the so-called gravy train and cut spending at city hall, would mean the elimination of about 650 officers and 240 civilians. That’s on top of 200 positions that will be lost through attrition.
“Any reduction of this magnitude would severely impact the service’s ability to provide adequate and effective policing services and is therefore strongly not recommended,” it reads.
The Police Services Board will hold a special meeting Wednesday to consider the proposal.
“I will be voting to reject it,” Thompson said, calling Blair’s proposal disappointing.
“Policing is not a special unit that requires any more consideration than daycare or other types of services. We all support the police but we are faced with very difficult budget constraints.”
In May, the board granted a four-year 11.5 per cent wage increase to the Toronto Police Association. That breaks down to 3.19 per cent this year and about 3 per cent in each of the following years.
“The mayor hands out a huge contract and then wonders why they can’t meet his budget projections. It’s not rocket science here. If you give them a huge pay hike, you can’t cut the budget without laying officers off,” said city councillor Adam Vaughan, who is a former member of the Police Services Board.
“This is the mayor who promised more police and is now delivering fewer police and doing it for an increased cost.”
The proposed increase is not surprising given the recent wage increase, said board member Chin Lee.
“I can see where the chief is coming from, but that’s only one scenario,” Lee said, adding he has yet to read the proposal. “We on the police board will have to discuss what other options there are.”
The showdown over the budget comes amid mounting tension between Blair and the Police Services Board.
Blair warned in early September that the city’s cost-cutting demands would result in layoffs of as many as 1,000 front-line officers, reductions that he said would have “a very significant impact on public safety.”
Thompson accused Blair of “playing the fear game,” and said he was disappointed the chief used the media to discuss these issues ahead of submitting his full report to the board.
Blair still faces criticism over how Toronto police officers dealt with protesters during the G20 world leaders summit in June 2010.
In a report released in June, Blair admitted that police were overwhelmed, unprepared, and may have been too confrontational with law-abiding protesters.
The board recently took the unprecedented step of refusing to promote nine officers who were disciplined for removing their name tags during the G20.
Under Blair’s current contract, he remains as chief of police until April 2015.