2024/2025 GSPS Budget Increase – Email/Phone Script

EMAIL – MAYOR

“Hi Mayor Lefebvre,

I am a resident of ward [insert ward number]/I am a Sudbury resident, and I am writing to you because I am deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of my neighbors & community members who continue to be targeted by systemic racism, ongoing surveillance, criminalization, and violence by policing in the City of Greater Sudbury. Sudbury residents look to and expect you to amplify the demands of our community and count on you to center the needs of populations made vulnerable by harmful government policies. 

I am still outraged by the astronomical police budget that continues to rise – recently approved to be $83.5 million over the next two years. As per the 2024/2025 proposed budget board presentation, of the incidents that Greater Sudbury Police Services respond to, only 17 percent of them are crime-related. Given that more than 80 percent of calls to the Greater Sudbury Police services are involving non-criminal issues and that calls to overdoses are rising, it is critical that we examine the ways in which police presence could change a situation for the worse and change how an individual experiences care.

In a recent poll from Sudbury.com with a total of 1362 votes, 807 respondents (59.18%) believe that Sudburians will NOT be safer with an inflated budget.

We have seen that police reform, such as investing in body cameras, civilian reviews or de-escalation and implicit bias training does not work. We don’t need more videos of police killing and harassing people, we need supports in place that help our communities thrive.

Rather than support the ever-increasing GSPS budget, I ask that you support a city budget that immediately redirects a minimum of 10 percent of the $83.5 million GSPS budget for the communities they have devastated by investing in:

  • secure, affordable, and long-term housing for street-involved and unhoused communities
  • food security programs
  • public transit
  • public health
  • public libraries 
  • community-led anti-violence programs.
  • overdose response and harm reduction services, including a permanent supervised consumption site
  • non-police, community-based crisis response models; and other public social services that allow community members to thrive free of unnecessary harm and violence.

The experiences of Black, Indigenous, racialized, homeless, disabled, migrant, sex worker, queer and trans communities who are targeted by police, along with the overwhelming data, show us time and time again that police are unwilling and unprepared to keep Sudbury residents safe. People who hold these identities are valued members of our larger communities and we cannot sit idly by while this violence keeps happening. The Greater Sudbury Police budgetary spending, misdirection of city resources, and violence toward Black, Indigenous, racialized, impoverished, and other communities who are targeted by police has to stop. 

The levels of policing in Sudbury are unacceptable. I am asking you to use your platform as our representative to ensure our communities are safe.

Will you take action by supporting the defunding of the 2024-2025 Greater Sudbury Police Services budget by at least 10%, and the redirecting of those funds toward community supports & services? The only step forward to end police violence and transform social outcomes for communities is to decrease the scope of policing in Sudbury – beginning with defunding the GSPS.

I am asking you, an elected representative of Sudbury residents, to support a budget that redirects at least 10% of the GSPS budget towards supporting community needs. The safety and survival of our neighbors & community members depends on nothing less.

I look forward to your response. 

Thank you,

[Your name]”

VOICEMAIL – MAYOR

“Hi, Mayor Lefebvre

My name is _______, and I am a resident of ward [insert ward number]/I am a Sudbury resident.

I am calling to urge you to respond to Black Lives Matter – Sudbury’s demand to defund the Greater Sudbury Police Services by at least 10% in the ongoing 2024-2025 budget process, and invest those funds into community supports & services.

I urge you to use your public platform as an elected official to explicitly state that the levels of policing in Sudbury are unacceptable. 

The experiences of people who are targeted by police, along with the overwhelming data, show us repeatedly that police are unprepared and unwilling to keep communities safe. We know that it is Black, Indigenous, racialized, disabled, homeless, queer & trans community members who disproportionately bear the brunt of systemic racism, ongoing surveillance, criminalization, and violence in policing. We need to create effective alternative services such as non-police, community-based crisis intervention, mental health centers, and housing.

Funds must be removed from the GSPS budget and immediately invested in secure long-term housing for unhoused communities, overdose response and harm reduction programs, food security programs, free childcare, transit, and community-led anti-violence and crisis response programs, as recommended by Black Lives Matter Sudbury and other grassroots organizations across the city.

The response to Covid-19 has shown us that when there is urgency, politicians are able to make necessary change quickly. We are asking that you respond to the over-policing, and deaths of Black and Indigenous folks at the hands of police with this same urgency.

The safety and survival of our neighbors & community members depends on nothing less.”

[Optional]: I would welcome a conversation with you about these issues and demands. You can reach me at [Your #]