A committee to defund the police formation has been put on hold for six months because some councillors believe it is 'redundant.' 

The motion to create the committee of council on defunding the police went before council on Oct. 13 and passed unanimously

The role of the committee would be to review the Defunding the Police report recommendations and determine how they could be implemented. The committee would consist of two Board of Police Commissioners members, two Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) Councillors, two representatives from HRM, representatives from the Department of Justice, Halifax Regional Police, Halifax District RCMP and four members from the community with relevant experiences. 

The Defunding the Police: Defining the Way Forward for HRM was released in 2020. The committee would provide the Board of Police Commissioners with regular updates.

Coun. Becky Kent, chair of the Board of Police Commissioners, says a committee to defund the police would be “redundant” because of current work being done to meet the recommendations of the report.

“There’s a lot going on right now within the municipality and partners,” she said.

Work on policy issues that relate to recommendations from the report have been underway by a subcommittee of the Board of Police Commissioners. 

Coun. Lindell Smith raised his concerns that the community would no longer feel involved if a committee isn’t formed.

“We’ve told the community that we would create a public facing committee focused on the defund report,” Smith says. 

The Chief Administrative Officer will report back to Halifax Regional Council and the Board of Police Commissioners within the next six months to decide whether or not the committee will go ahead. 

“This is not sidelining the recommendations that came out of that report,” Kent says. “It is really adapting to a collective new approach to ‘how do we reimagine it?’”

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