The City of Ottawa should reallocate funds from its police budget towards local LGBTQ+ healthcare service providers.
The Ottawa Police Services (OPS) 2022 budget, allocated by the City of Ottawa, is $385 million. Meanwhile, the city’s 2022 community funding budget, encompassing LGBTQ+ resource centres such as Kind Space, is a mere $27 million, despite public demand.
Ottawa organizations dedicated to the well-being of LGBTQ+ communities are overwhelmed and underfunded. In 2021, a GoFundMe page was created to raise funds for Kind Space so it could operate vital services despite a lack of city funding.
These vital services include a trans ID clinic, which assists transgender people wanting to legally change their name and sex designation, and a referral service to other LGBTQ+ friendly spaces in the city.
Another example of the overwhelming demand for LGBTQ+ services in Ottawa is the two-year waitlist at the Centretown Community Health Centre’s trans health clinic.
The seemingly endless wait time is unsurprising, according to recent reports by Trans Pulse Canada. In 2020, 42 per cent of transgender Ontarians reported unmet healthcare needs, and 55 per cent rated their mental health as “fair or poor.”
While it’s evident Ottawa’s LGBTQ+ community needs better access to healthcare services, it’s also clear that funding provided to this community must be redirected from the cities overfunded police service.
In 2021, a Trans Pulse Canada survey of 2,043 trans and non-binary Canadians found that 54 per cent were worried about being harassed or stopped by police or security. If the City of Ottawa really cared about its LGBTQ+ community, it would pay attention to studies such as these, that paint a picture of a community in need.
Although the city did reallocate an extra $2 million towards social services at the request of the OPS, this gesture paints a false picture of generosity. Behind this insincere transfer of funds lies the $14 million hike to the police budget from 2021 to 2022.
With a municipal election on the horizon, city councillor candidates such as Ariel Troster of Somerset Ward, who are prioritizing investments in health and social services as part of their campaigns, should be championed.
Canada’s capital should not be a place where LGBTQ+ people fall through systemic gaps and face barriers to vital social services. The city’s police and community funding budgets should be better balanced to support members of minority communities.
Featured graphic from file.
