Former budget chief and mayoral candidate David Soknacki is returning for duty after he was appointed to a task force to modernize the police service while cutting costs.

After the Toronto police board resurrected a buried consultant’s report recommending sweeping changes, the “Transformational Task Force” will report in June and more substantially at the end of the year about how to implement some of those ideas.

As the police budget, which has ballooned to over $1 billion this year, faces growing criticism at council and from the public, the Star talked to Soknacki about how to turn things around.

During the mayoral campaign you called policing costs “unsustainable.” How would you describe the budget today?

I stand confirmed in the belief that the existing structure and way we do things as a city with respect to policing and the police budget are unsustainable. And it acknowledges that 90 per cent of expenses are salaries and associated costs, but rather that confirms more that we ought to look beyond the same old approach of budgeting.

If the majority of the budget is wrapped up in contracted salaries, how do you make a dent in costs?

Well, you start asking the questions about: What is policing and crime prevention in our city? Why have we as a city put crossing guards and on-street parking inside of a police budget? Are those our core functions? And how do we measure policing? Putting officers in schools is great for morale; it’s very difficult to measure. One needs to take a broader look at policing and the core functions in order to make a change.

You once said it was possible to save something like $200 million over four years. Do you still think that’s possible?

No new facts have come up that show that the original assumptions were incorrect.

You’ve mentioned a few things that could potentially lead to significant savings. One of those was replacing uniformed officers with lesser-paid civilians. That’s been kind of a touchy topic, especially with the police union, who don’t want to see the total number of officers reduced. How do you address that?

That recommendation isn’t new. It’s been in a number of reports. The committee has asked for the (KPMG consultants’) report to come forward for review, and indeed that’s in the mandate of the committee. So we will be looking at that as well as other options for not only addressing the dollars and cents of policing, but also the mandates and the needs of policing in our city.

In the past you faced this on council: When some of the senior police brass and the union feel threatened, they often cite violent-crime statistics in their own defence. What’s your strategy on this task force in dealing with some of that rhetoric?

We need to base our decisions on facts and on well-researched analyses. Part of the set of reports that are coming forward are from the Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Institute, and that reports the level of crime, the severity of crime and both the efficiency and the effectiveness of the Toronto police. We’re going to try to take some of the sting out of the rhetoric by looking at the facts.

Do you think there’s a big ticket item that could really impact the budget? Is it shift structures for officers?

We all come to the committee with baggage. I know that Jeff Griffiths has made many recommendations as the city’s auditor general over the years. I expect he will raise those issues from his perspective. We have Michelle DiEmanuele, who has experience at restructuring the health care system. I expect her to bring a lot of great ideas — and others from other committee members. So, I expect not only will we come with our own perspective, but we’ve also tabled so many reports that all have great ideas. So, I hope that we’re going to have an embarrassment of recommendations rather than just a couple to choose from.

A lot of the reform being discussed has to do with saving money. But you’ve also been vocal about carding and other practices about which there have been calls for reform. Do you see that as part of the task force’s mandate?

There’s a couple of different perspectives that we have to be careful of. Number one is the public’s and the police board’s impatience for change. We have a very, very short time frame and a lot of recommendations to sift through. So that’s one side. On the other side, the recognition by everyone around that table that policing is so much more than front line officers out on the beat. It can extend as broadly as our social housing and our recreation and parks and the interaction that officers have with the public. So, we have to strike a balance.

A lot of what we’re talking about now and what’s been raised in the KPMG report are not new issues. Do you have confidence this task force will be able to navigate those cuts and cost savings?

Before signing on to the (task force), I wanted the personal assurances of the mayor and the chair of the police services board that they were committed to transformational change, which in fact is the name of this committee. And both of them said that this time it’s different. There’s a short time frame, it needs to be transformational change and there’s lots of recommendations among which to choose from. That’s the perspective that I have. There is a lot of goodwill at present around that table and I think that all committee members want to provide a credible and forceful report.

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You promised to sit on the police board if you were elected. How do you think Tory’s doing in that role and with these issues?

I think that his commitment to transformational change is an excellent start. And like the public, I’m looking forward to his implementation of the recommendations of the task force when it gets to the police services board.