Hill: Federal government must do more to help with Ottawa's policing costs

When protesters are angry at federal policies, or foreign dignitaries come to meet national leaders, why should municipal taxpayers carry most of the bill for security?

Published Apr 09, 2024 • Last updated 3 hours ago • 3 minute read

Thousands of Palestinian supporters meet for a protest in downtown Ottawa March 9, 2024. Smoke grenades fill the air with red and green clouds. Photo by Ashley Fraser /POSTMEDIA

Since the convoy protest in 2022, Ottawa has been the site of more than 130 protests, with roughly 50 of them including more than 1,000 participants. Whether the theme is COVID, social problems, labour strikes or foreign conflicts, Ottawa is no stranger to large protests about federal issues.

Take, for example, the March 9 protest over Canada’s position on the war in Gaza. It brought thousands of people, many travelling from Montreal and Toronto, to Parliament Hill. Nearly 3,000 people marched through Ottawa’s downtown, causing the police to close Wellington, O’Connor and Metcalfe streets. Or take the convoy disruption to our downtown that dragged on for three weeks while protesters barricaded roads and blared horns at all hours to protest the federal government’s COVID policies.

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Major disruptions in downtown Ottawa are not limited to protests. Nearly a year ago, U.S. President Joe Biden made the first American presidential visit to the capital since 2016, requiring motorcades, transportation corridors and a significant investment of police presence downtown.

All these events stretched the capacity of our police service, to the detriment of Ottawa residents.

Visits from foreign dignitaries and protests don’t always have a lot in common, but they all require a significant investment in time and resources from local police. We are the nation’s capital. That comes with a lot of benefits, from tourism to jobs, but it also brings unique costs. When a foreign leader visits, police are pulled out of our suburbs. When protesters against the prime minister march on Wellington Street, officers assigned to patrol suburban streets are pulled downtown to help keep the peace.

A regular protest, planned in advance with hundreds of participants, requires a significant number of police officers to cordon off the route, monitor the crowd and prevent conflict. The number of officers required increases when protesters fail to give police time to plan, or change their route at the last minute. Police resources are stretched even further for protests with thousands of participants. Those 130 protests since 2022 have all required a police or bylaw response. That’s thousands of officer hours dedicated each year to police protests about non-municipal issues.

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To be clear, keeping the peace at protests is a necessary investment. Free speech makes Canada great: we are a diverse people whose experiences and voices make us stronger. Over the course of my military career, I deployed to many struggling democracies. I saw firsthand the damage done to hard-won freedoms when citizens did not feel safe in public spaces. In order for us all to be heard, we need to balance free speech with peace, order and good government. This is why cities such as Ottawa have bylaws that ensure permitted protest activities can be safely expressed and heard while at the same time protecting the health and safety of all citizens — protesters and bystanders alike.

Ultimately my question is this: when protesters are angry at federal policies, or foreign dignitaries have come to meet with federal leaders, why should Ottawa municipal taxpayers carry the majority of the bill?

What is clear based on the protest activity in Ottawa is that the Ottawa Police Service needs additional resources to be able to both manage routine city responsibilities and the unique challenges of policing the nation’s capital. Policing federal issues requires a special funding relationship, and the federal government needs to provide the additional compensation to the City of Ottawa based on the nature of the protests.

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The city holds statistics on the number of protests held annually and the costs associated with those operations. The costing models can be detailed and specific. Creating a funding model that is fair to both our residents and the federal government is doable.

I am not alone in recognizing that this is a significant problem that requires federal investment. As part of Ottawa’s New Deal released on March 28, Ontario and the City made a joint statement calling for the federal government to invest $60 million in recognition of the “unique and excess costs” that Ottawa bears due to “managing protest and demonstrations in the capital.”

To not improve the current municipal-federal funding model puts at risk our police service’s ability to perform its core duty, and the safety or residents citywide.

David Hill is the Ottawa city councillor for Ward 3, Barrhaven-West.

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