City Council’s recent about face on the Calgary Police Service’s budget for 2011 is another example, in a long list, of how our current Council does not appear to have any grasp of financial responsibility.
In an attempt to close off a $60 million budget shortfall, the debate has centred on where the necessary cuts can be made. The current City Council saw fit to exempt the City’s largest department from most of these cuts and from any budgetary discussion at all. The Police budget for the following year has already been approved and now the cuts to the rest of the City’s departments will need to be that much more severe.
Now, like most Calgarians, I fully support the Police service, however, this doesn’t mean they should be exempt from the normal budget process. While the Police are an essential service, it still needs to be held accountable to Calgarians for its budget and like every other department, should not be given carte-blanche to spend the taxpayers’ money.
One problem with this decision, which has already become evident, is the requests from other City departments for the same treatment. Within a day or two of Council’s decision, the Fire Department had announced that if it is forced to cut anything from its budget, response times will have to be sacrificed and fire halls may have to go understaffed. The Fire Department has demanded the same treatment as the Police, arguing they too are an essential service who should be exempt from any kind of budgetary discussion. I would expect to see other departments demanding the same in the weeks to come. Council has stirred up a hornet’s nest, and it is likely Calgarians who will get stung.
The other interesting thing about Council’s decision is how many aldermen, often preaching fiscal responsibility, have so quickly changed their tune and are now saying that an essential service like the Police should be exempt from this kind of responsibility. Without taking anything away from the Police, can’t the same be said of most City departments? How long could we survive with reduced water services, garbage collection or worse limited snow removal? Yes, the police are an essential service, but so are many of the services the City provides, and like all those other departments, the Police need to go through the same due process. It isn’t that the Police need or should cut their budget, but should it not at least warrant some discussion? The Police are the single largest City expenditure, and this is a part of the budget nobody wants to discuss. It doesn’t add up. Or maybe it does, but nobody wants to talk about it.
-The Butcher
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