Transition Montréal proposes public safety measures, criticizes Plante administration’s approach
Posted August 28, 2025 4:09 pm.
Last Updated August 28, 2025 4:16 pm.
Transition Montréal leader and mayoral candidate Craig Sauvé unveiled his party’s public safety plan on Thursday morning.
“The idea is to make Montreal a safer, more secure, more healthy city based on human rights, based on attacking the true causes of criminality,” said Sauvé.
The party says the current Plante administration has invested too heavily in police reaction and not enough in prevention.
According to Transition Montréal between 2019 and 2023, an additional envelope of $40 million went annually to overtime. If elected the party says it wants to implement a tight control of overtime in order to find necessary funds that can finance prevention.
“Every dollar that’s invested in crime prevention, it’s been shown. We will get savings of probably $4, $5 down the line, because we’re reducing judicial costs, we’re reducing policing costs, and crimes against society do have a cost in general in our economy,” stated Sauvé, on the need for Montreal to expand and further fund prevention programs.
As part of their newly unveiled public safety strategy the party is also promising $25 million a year for community programs and the creation of a 24/7 civil crisis response team for non-criminal emergencies which account for up to 80 per cent of 911 calls.
“We must go beyond the Équipe mobile de médiation et d’intervention sociale (EMMIS). With this new service, Montréal will be able to redirect police officers towards real investigations and crimes while offering humane responses adapted to vulnerable people,” said Sauvé in a press release.
Transition Montréal also wants an end to arbitrary police stops, noting reports show Black and Indigenous people are up to four times more likely to be stopped, with no impact on public safety.
In Dec. 2024, 104 organizations united their voice in order to demand an abolition of these arbitrary police stops. A demand Transition Montréal says it’s committed to meeting as soon as it takes power.
“It was a failing of this administration to not put an end to street checks. It’s a question of human rights. It’s a question of human dignity,” said Sauvé on the matter.
