The Greater Sudbury police board has pared their 2024 budget increase down to 8.09 per cent from its previously proposed 10.66 per cent while retaining a 26-member boost in staff.
Adding more police officers and staff was a direction established in the 2023 budget, and which Mayor Paul Lefebvre said he supports the continuation of.
“Right now, the community wants and needs more policing, in the sense our residents don’t feel safe and there’s a demand to have more of a police presence,” he told Sudbury.com following the board’s Nov. 1 meeting at Tom Davies Square.
This, he added, is a message he heard during last year’s campaign, as well as at recent town hall meetings he has hosted alongside city council members in each of the city’s 12 wards.
The commitment to hire more police officers and policing staff is something Lefebvre said has been common in many municipalities, and Greater Sudbury has been no exception.
The initial proposed GSPS budget for 2024-25 was tabled last week, and spoken about at length during the Oct. 30 board meeting at Tom Davies Square, at which member Gerry Lougheed requested a handful of cuts.
The ask from GSPS staff was for a 10.66-per-cent budget increase in 2024 and an additional 6.92-per-cent increase in 2025. The board ended up whittling them down to a respective increase of 8.09 per cent and 6.2 per cent.
“There are a lot of tough decisions made in the budget that was proposed ... but it doesn’t affect the day-to-day operations,” Lefebvre told Sudbury.com.
During their Nov. 1 meeting, the board was presented the following proposed cuts, which they approved. These included:
- Cutting proposed $500,000 annual increases in future years’ facilities reserve contributions
- Cutting $398,438 in budgeted overtime
- Delay hiring certain additional staff members until July 2024 and January 2025, to save $473,100
Lefebvre proposed a successful amendment to cut an additional $500,000 from future years’ annual facilities reserve contributions, bringing them down to $1.65 million per year.
With the board unanimously agreeing to these reductions, the new proposed 2024 and 2025 operating budgets are a respective $78.59 million and $83.5 million. Their 2023 budget was $72.7 million.
During the meeting, Chief Paul Pedersen cautioned that cutting future year’s facilities reserve contributions would result in “even more difficult choices than we’re already making on facilities we’re already acknowledging are inadequate.”
Although the reserve fund is primarily intended to help pay for new police headquarters, in whatever form the project may take, it has also been used for repairs to existing infrastructure.
The fund is currently sitting at just greater than $6 million, a police spokesperson confirmed to Sudbury.com.
Describing the budget as “bare bones,” Pedersen cautioned that additional cuts would “start getting below bare bones and start getting to where there’s significant risk in being able to maintain the facilities we’re in.”
With the 2024/25 GSPS budgets approved by the board on Nov. 1, the proposed boost in staff includes the following additions in 2024:
- 10 constables (discussed during last year’s budget talks)
- One equity diversity inclusion strategist
- One communications infrastructure technology programmer
- One digital evidence processor
- One internal communications strategist
The following staff members would be hired in 2025:
- Four constables (discussed during last year’s budget talks)
- Six constables, including three specializing in drugs and three in sexual assaults
- Two forensic specialists
The two forensic specialists were originally slated to be hired in 2024, while the non-constable 2024 hires have been delayed until July rather than the start of the year as initially proposed.
Pedersen is expected to present the board-approved 2024/25 budget to Greater Sudbury city council on Nov. 15.
With the two years’ proposed budget increases of a respective 8.09 per cent and 6.2 per cent exceeding city council’s mandated maximum of 4.7 per cent, it remains to be seen whether it receives final approval.
The city’s elected officials can recommend a yea or nay regarding the police budget’s new annual 2024 and 2025 budget totals (a respective $78.59 million and $83.5 million), but have limited power in altering it. In the event both sides disagree and stick to their guns, the budget will be sent to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission for a final decision.
The Nov. 15 finance and administration committee meeting of city council is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. It can be viewed in-person at Tom Davies Square or livestreamed by clicking here.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
