Barrie police want 7.28 per cent more to keep the city safe in 2023.
A $62.3-million draft budget was presented at Thursday afternoon’s Barrie Police Services Board meeting.
Barrie Police Chief Kimberley Greenwood pointed to a number of factors leading to what she called “unavoidable increases" in 2023 for city police.
An inflation rate of 6.9 per cent, a 15 per cent increase to long-term disability premiums, an estimated 8.2 per cent more for Canada Pension Plan (CPP) premiums, an estimated 7.2 per cent hike to employment insurance (EI) premiums, an estimated three per cent increase to health and dental premiums, and a confirmed 5.1 per cent to life insurance premiums.
There are also contractual salary increases coming in January and July.
“If we were just to stand still as a service, without increasing our current year’s staffing numbers, salaries in 2023 would result in a budgetary increase of 3.5 per cent,” Greenwood said, while also mentioning another 1.7 per cent for benefits.
“In total, salaries, benefits, overtime and using our (current) staffing levels would result in an unavoidable increase in the 2023 overall budget, to 6.7 per cent over what we see in 2022,” she said.
Police are asking for four more civilian employees next year and five new sworn officers, bringing those totals to 125 and 250 respectively.
“When you see a number like seven per cent, that’s a big number, but it’s a growing city,” said Mayor Jeff Lehman, who did not seek re-election after three terms. “Just like with city budgets, anytime we ask the public for more money, I tell them what they’re getting and I think the choice this year is very clear, that we are going to return the city to a sworn complement (of officers) to ensure we’re answering calls.
“There are situations where our resources are very stretched and response times aren’t what we want them to be for certain situations," he added.
Growth makes a larger police department necessary, Lehman said, and a drive to south-end Barrie shows new homes and apartments, although there are cranes throughout the city for highrise development.
“These are all people who will need police service,” he added. “We’re a people service. We’re just seeing the hockey stick of growth now.”
Police board member Arif Khan also supports more police officers.
“The service continues to be stretched thin and look internally on how to shuffle and how to make the best of what was available,” he said.
Board member Lynn Strachan was also in favour of more civilian employees at Barrie police.
“It just allows us to have more sworn officers on the roads, out there in the community, responding to calls and that’s where we need our sworn officers,” she said. “I agree it’s a big number when you look at it percentage wise, but I think that it will be reflected in the quality of (the police service offered).”
The draft budget also includes $6.9 million in revenue — including provincial grants for court security and community safety — and legislative impacts of $3.7 million, including supporting Ontario’s First Responders Act.
With the new police hires, salaries, benefits and overtime would total $56.5 million in 2023, or 94.4 per cent of next year’s budget request to the city.
The police board approved the draft 2023 budget at Thursday’s meeting.
But the Barrie Police Service's operating and capital budget requires approval from city council, where mayor-elect Alex Nuttall ran on a campaign of freezing property taxes.
City treasurer Craig Millar said the plan is to present the city’s operating and capital budget, which includes police expenses, to Barrie councillors on Jan. 16, 2023, with general committee deliberations on Feb. 6 and final city council approval on Feb. 13.
Barrie police officials are scheduled to present its operational and capital budget to council in the middle of this process, on Jan. 30.
Police spending is traditionally the largest segment of Barrie’s annual operating budget. This year it is 21.8 per cent, while last year it was 22.2 per cent.
Barrie police calls for service are roughly 20 per cent criminal and 80 per cent non-criminal, 60 per cent non-emergency and 40 per cent emergency.
