Public Safety | A costly year for Montreal

The City of Montreal expects to pay 62 million more for the remuneration of its public security employees for 2022, and the costs of the police deployment during COP15, next December, could inflate the bill even further.

Isabelle Ducas
The Press

Pay for public security represents the largest increase in spending anticipated for the current year, according to budget documents tabled with the executive committee on Wednesday and adopted behind closed doors. We are talking about 48.5 million more in overtime, 7.7 million more in wages and 6.4 million more in social charges and illness.

Public security brings together the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) and the Montreal Fire Department.

Last year, the police department paid $34.7 million more than budgeted for overtime, “largely related to general and unusual operations, replacement of absences and vacancies, as well as to events with firearms”, indicates the City’s 2021 financial statement.

The same scenario repeats itself in 2022.

“We had a lot of events such as shootings, demonstrations, we are emerging from a pandemic, but it is above all on armed violence that we have put a lot of staff and energy”, explains the head of Public Security to the Executive Committee, Alain Vaillancourt.

Mr. Vaillancourt recalls that Montreal obtained 250 million from the government to increase the police force in order to fight against armed violence, which should reduce the pressure on the officers in post and reduce overtime in the future, he said.

The administration of Valérie Plante had promised to hire 282 police officers in 2022. However, recruitment is proving difficult: only 45 new officers joined the SPVM in September and October, indicates a spokesperson for the police force.

COP15: spending of $25 million for the SPVM

In addition, law enforcement will be in great demand during the holding of the 15^e Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which will be held at the Palais des Congrès from December 7 to 19, 2022, in the presence of more than 12,000 delegates from 185 countries, including several Heads of State having need strong police protection.

The preliminary cost estimate for the SPVM was close to $25 million, according to the documents submitted to the executive committee this week, but other costs are to be expected “for impromptu events or events currently being organized whose magnitude is currently unknown.

These sums will be largely reimbursed by the Government of Canada, but the executive committee has authorized a payment of $850,000 to cover “expenses not eligible for reimbursement”.

An expenditure of $268,000 was also approved to “set up a temporary neighborhood station that can accommodate a deployment of more than 400 police officers, as well as facilities to plan and coordinate their operations,” indicate the municipal documents.

Another sum of $237,000 will be used to pay for the rental of hotel rooms and halls required to secure the event.

“High risk of disruption”

City documents suggest there will be disorder during COP15. “Intelligence from specialized RCMP teams categorizes this event as a high risk of disruption. The latest edition of the [Convention] took place in 2021 and was punctuated by multiple major protests. The Palais des Congrès will be declared a diplomatic zone and will require a police deployment on a rare scale to ensure its 24/7 protection. Added to this is the surveillance of 70 hotels as well as all the other sites in which the City of Montreal could organize parallel activities, ”we can read.

It is noted that this will be “the strongest police deployment of the SPVM for nearly 20 years” and that the personnel needs exceed the capacity of the SPVM and the Sûreté du Québec and require that various other police forces be mobilized.

Montreal will notably receive assistance from the police services of Laval and Longueuil, reveals Alain Vaillancourt. “All the police officers who will be involved do so on a voluntary basis,” he adds.

The budget planned for the last Convention was 40 million, but the event ended up costing 250 million, indicate the notes prepared for elected officials.