WATSON BACKS CALL FOR MORE POLICE

Minister Says 'Ottawa Got Shortchanged' In Previous Round Of Funding

Ottawa deserves more Ontario government support to hire up to 182
urgently needed police officers, according to Ottawa-West MPP Jim Watson.

The provincial government has announced a "Safer Communities -- 1,000
Officers Partnership Program" that will pay 50 per cent of police
officers' salaries to a maximum of $35,000 each. Ottawa hopes to hire
90 more officers during the next three years and retroactively pay for
the recent hiring of 92 officers.

"In my view, the City of Ottawa got shortchanged under a similar
program offered by the previous government because it was not offered
on a per-capita basis," Mr. Watson said. "Ottawa did not get its fair
share of officers under the province-wide program.

"I have undertaken, along with my colleagues in caucus, to ensure that
when the applications are put in from Ottawa that we fight to ensure
we are getting equitable treatment based on other large cities in
Ontario. Ottawa deserves equal treatment to other cities."

Mr. Watson said he often receives telephone calls from constituents
who complain they don't see enough police officers on the street. He
said police Chief Vince Bevan is correct to seek an increase in police
hiring.

But, he said it's difficult to determine whether the city can get
provincial financing for 182 positions.

Ottawa Councillor Jan Harder said Mr. Watson's support for the city's
plan to hire more police officers is welcome news. Ms. Harder said
Ottawa is one of the fastest growing cities in Canada, but can't hire
enough police officers on its own.

"Our share of police officers should be exactly what we deserve and
what we need," Ms. Harder said. "We have grown by 100,000 people in
the five years since amalgamation. We could probably use another 400
officers, but 180 would help us dramatically."

Ms. Harder said only one patrol car is assigned to Barrhaven 24 hours
a day, even though the community has a population of 60,000 people.

"Ottawa is getting to be like Toronto was a number of years ago and if
we don't have the resources that we need, we could within 10 years be
like Toronto is today. We are seeing increases in the number of gangs
and drugs coming into this city and can't handle it with the the
resources we have."

Councillor Eli El-Chantiry, a member of Ottawa's Police Services
Board, said it is time for the province to provide more money for
policing because the city's police budget has increased to $175
million this year from $98 million in 2000.

"We hear of crime taking place in communities where we never used to
hear about it," Mr. El-Chantiry said. "We have had a 29-per-cent
increase in requests for police service this year. Where are we going
to get the money?"

Ottawa will know by Nov. 21 whether it will receive more provincial
support for policing. If the province agrees to pay for all 182 police
positions being requested, the city would get $4.2 million in help.

During the last provincial election, Premier Dalton McGuinty promised
1,000 more police officers on Ontario streets by the end of four years.

Ottawa has been hiring officers and plans to hire more to cover
rapidly growing suburban neighbourhoods such as Riverside South,
Barrhaven and Orleans. Some of the officers will focus on problems
such as youth crime, marijuana grow operations, child pornography and
child exploitation through the Internet.

The former Conservative government had a program to help
municipalities hire more police, but Ottawa police officials believe
they were shortchanged, getting funding for 32 more officers when the
police service believed it should have been given help with 70 hires.

The police service says it needs to hire more officers to maintain a
reasonable ratio of police to residents, currently one officer for 744
citizens.