Toronto's Mayor Wants To Hire 200 New Police Officers In 2023 & Here's What It Will Cost

Toronto Mayor John Tory has unveiled a bold and expensive plan for the city's 2023 budget that would see a big top-up to the budget for the Toronto Police Service (TPS) and 200 new officers hired.

Tory made the announcement in a news conference Tuesday afternoon, addressing recent concerns over incidents of violence in high schools and random attacks out in public, including on the TTC.

"There is no issue that concerns me more than community safety. We have to combat the crime and violence we have seen. I want a safe city for every resident, everywhere in Toronto, at all times," said Tory in a statement. "These budget investments will help our police in the work they do, support youth and families, and, most importantly to me as Mayor, will help keep people safe."

In all, the hiring of these 200 new officers and the proposed expansion of the Neighbourhood Community Officer program would cost an extra $48.3 million, representing a 4.3% increase to the police budget for 2023.

Tory said the investments would also add 20 additional 9-1-1 operators to improve 9-1-1 service and response times, and include $2 million "for youth and families, allocated to anti-violence programming to address the roots of violence."

Tory made clear in his announcement that this proposal was being made alongside a commitment to "not to make affordability challenges faced by people in the city of Toronto worse," he said, "which means keeping property tax increases for the operating budget below the rate of inflation."

But not everyone agrees that giving more money to TPS is the right solution.

Councillor Josh Matlow blatantly called the proposal "wrong" and explained why he thought so in a series of tweets.

Matlow said pouring more money into the most expensive portion of Toronto's budget is "neither the fact based or most effective approach to combating crime from occurring."

Tory's latest budget proposals still need to be approved by the city council and will be presented to the Budget Committee on January 10.