The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) plans to spend at least $25 million to ensure the safety of participants at COP15, which will be held in Montreal in December. A bill that could continue to increase by then.
A large part of the bill will be reimbursed by the federal government, but the City will also have to cover part of the expenses surrounding the 15e edition of the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity, which will be held mainly at the Palais des Congrès in Montreal from 7 to December 19.
The elected members of the executive committee thus adopted on Wednesday a budgetary transfer of $850,000 to the SPVM in order to offset “impromptu security expenses relating to the events surrounding the coming of COP15” which will not be covered by Ottawa. In September, an amount of 3.4 million had also been approved by the City in this file.
Major mobilization
Initially, the Montreal Police Department estimated, in a “preliminary” way, at 25 million the amount necessary to ensure the security of this event. COP15 will welcome more than 12,000 delegates from 185 countries. This event, which will host several heads of state, could also lead to the holding of numerous demonstrations.
“It will take a lot of police overtime to ensure the security of the Palais des Congrès and many hotels,” analyzes retired SPVM supervisor Stéphane Wall. To meet demand, “there are people who will be paid double time, even triple time. So it will be extremely expensive, ”he foresees.
The City also recognizes that its estimate of 25 million could be revised upwards, because “additional costs” could be generated by the holding of “impromptu” events, the magnitude of which “is currently unknown”, note the executive committee decision documents. “If there are demonstrations every day, it takes police officers present every day”, summarizes Stéphane Wall.
According to the City, this will be the SPVM’s largest police deployment in nearly 20 years. This international event will mobilize other police forces, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Sûreté du Québec.
Turnaround situation
COP15 was originally scheduled to be held in China in October 2020, but the event has been pushed back several times. The first part of the event, more formal, was held in Kunming in October 2021. Given the health rules in China, the second part, aimed at completing the negotiations, was finally entrusted to Montreal where the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
The City also had to book hotel rooms to accommodate the police. It thus concluded an agreement with Hilton Montreal to rent rooms and halls in the Double Tree hotel, located in the Complexe Desjardins within the framework of a contract, for a maximum value of 237,046 dollars.
A decision document from the City also highlights the little leeway the City had in anticipation of the event. “The host country usually benefits from more than a year of preparation in order to secure the security of such a major event,” we explain. “The fact that Montreal is hosting COP15 in such a short time greatly complicates the underlying planning. The first details made available by the UN were shared with the SPVM on September 6th. Since […], several steps have been taken urgently. We are currently seven weeks away from holding the event. »