News Release: Ontario Strengthening Community Safety

Table of Contents

1. Content
2. Quick Facts
3. Additional Resources

TORONTO — The Ontario government is helping police services across the province combat crime and keep communities safe by investing $267.6 million over three years through the province’s Community Safety and Policing (CSP) Grant program. Through the CSP Grant program, eligible police services are provided with funding to support the implementation of public safety and community policing initiatives that focus on local and provincial priorities such as community outreach programs, human trafficking and guns and gang violence.

“Nothing is more important than the safety of Ontarians,” said Sylvia Jones, Solicitor General. “Through this grant funding, we are helping build safer communities as well as ensuring Ontario’s police services have the resources they need to address the issues that matter most in their communities and do their jobs effectively.”

Of the $267.6 million investment, approximately $226 million will be provided through the local priorities funding stream to help police services address priority issues specific in their communities. These projects may include:

• Deploying additional frontline police officers where and when they are needed most
• Creating school liaison programs to raise awareness of issues such as bullying, cyber bullying, drugs, harmful substances as well as internet safety
• Developing community outreach programs on a variety of public safety issues including road safety, substance abuse, sexual violence, and human trafficking
• Providing enhanced training to frontline officers and community partners on public safety issues such as mental health, human trafficking, intimate partner violence, and gun and gang violence
• Setting up special units that provide comprehensive, survivor-centered approaches to address human trafficking or sexual violence and harassment
• Setting up collaborative “Situation Tables” between police and community partners to better deal with acutely elevated risks such as the opioid crisis and mental health issues
• Establishing and sharing intelligence gathering information such as surveillance of organized crime, covert operations, and social media monitoring of gang activity
• Implementing crime prevention, intervention and diversion strategies focused on youth and young adults who are at risk of entering gangs, as well as exit strategies for victims of human trafficking
• Purchasing new equipment that support policing operations and activities such as enhanced software/technology and/or new vehicles.

Additionally, approximately $42 million will be provided through the provincial priorities funding stream which includes gun and gang related violence, sexual violence and harassment, human trafficking, mental health and addictions as well as hate-motivated crime.

A call for application will be issued shortly to inform police services and their communities about the availability of the grant program. Eligible police services will be required to demonstrate collaborative partnerships among police services, municipalities, and community-based organizations. Successful recipients will be announced in spring 2022.

This investment builds on the approximately $112 million the province has invested to combat gun and gang violence since 2018 with the help of the federal government through the Ontario Guns, Gangs and Violence Reduction Strategy. It also builds on the province’s Anti-human Trafficking Strategy initiatives.

Quick Facts

• The 2022-23 – 2024-25 CSP Grant is available to police services boards (municipal and OPP contract locations) who were eligible to receive funding under the CSP Grant in 2019-20. Beginning this grant cycle, First Nations police services are eligible to apply for funding under the provincial priorities funding stream of the CSP Grant.
• Police services will be required to report bi-annually on the outcomes of their initiatives, such as an increase in support for frontline officers and/or an increase in community safety and well-being, for both the local and provincial priorities funding streams of the CSP grant program.
• The grant funding will help police services pay for personnel, training, equipment, engagement and education as well as research and analysis.

Creed Atkinson

Manager of Policy and Regulatory Affairs

Office of the Solicitor General

The Honourable Sylvia Jones

(437) 788-6509