City police want more green to shore up Barrie’s thin blue line.
A $67.5-million police budget, a 6.78 per cent increase from last year, was presented to city council Wednesday night by Barrie Police Services Board officials.
“We understand this is a large and significant request and represents a significant portion of the city’s budget,” said police board chairman Greg Ferguson. “We made every effort to be fiscally responsible while meeting our obligation under the Police Services Act.”
Only Couns. Clare Riepma and Amy Courser pushed back against the spending increase, which is up from $63.24 million last year.
“I do not buy into the premise that (policing) is a bill received that we must pay. That’s not how I look at this,” Courser said. “We really don’t get to take a real look under the hood for the details.
“Maybe we can look at better numbers next year,” she added. “For our own budget, we were really strapped down and there was such a huge push to find efficiencies.”
In December, council approved an operating/capital budget with no increase to property taxes on the city portion of spending for the typical Barrie homeowner.
Police spending is historically the largest portion of Barrie’s annual operating budget. In 2023, it was approximately 22.1 per cent. It was 21.8 per cent in 2022, and 22.2 per cent in 2021.
“My preference would be that you would slowly be trending down and so that the police budget would be less a proportion of our overall expense,” said Riepma.
“I think 20 to 25 per cent in that range is the sweet spot,” Ferguson said, “and that’s what it’s going to be as the city grows and our budget grows. We’re in the 22 per cent range.”
The Barrie Police Service 2023 budget asked for 7.28 per cent more funding, or a $4.29-million increase. It was pegged at $63.24 million, an increase from $58.95 million in 2022.
Of the 6.78 per cent budget increase, 5.3 per cent is for salaries and benefits alone.
A new five-year contract, with average annual wage increases of 3.5 per cent, was announced last week between Barrie Police Association and the Barrie Police Services Board.
The association represents 250 uniform and 125 civilian members of Barrie police.
The previous five-year contract expired on Dec. 31, 2023. The new contract runs from Jan. 1, 2024 until Dec. 31, 2028.
The new deal also includes an increase in wellness supports and provides a small premium paid to front-line officers who work 12-hour rotating shifts. Provisions within the collective agreement will allow Barrie police the ability to explore expanding the use of special constables throughout the community, including downtown Barrie and in neighbourhoods and areas that require specialized community engagement.
Ferguson said Barrie’s cop-to-pop ratio, the number of police officers to population comparison, is just less than 150 officers per 100,000 people. He said the provincial average is 174, the national average 181.
“It’s not about more or less policing,” he said. “People want better policing and that’s an expectation they should have.”
Salaries, benefits and overtime are estimated to be 95 per cent of this year’s police budget.
It asks to replace six officers a year during 2024 and 2025, and this year’s police budget includes four new civilian positions — a privacy and access clerk, a digital evidence management administrator, what’s called an organizational wellness administrative assistant and a communicator for next generator 911, which allows for additional details in emergency situations, such as the use of video.
The 2024 police budget also contains money for technology and infrastructure. This includes software to support body worn cameras, digital evidence management, closed circuit television cameras, automated license plate recognition, next generation 911 implementation and information technology infrastructure and security.
There’s also money in the budget for Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) mental stress injury claim costs. Police officers will experience 400 to 600 traumatic events throughout their career, according to Barrie police, compared to three to four such events for an average citizen.
The police budget still requires city council approval, which council is expected to consider at its Jan. 31 meeting.
Council’s December approval of its 2024 operating/capital budget, with no increase to property taxes on the city portion of spending for the typical Barrie homeowner — with a home assessed at $368,000 and a 2023 tax bill of $4,724 — is just one piece of the city’s fiscal puzzle.
That zero increase does not include budget requests for the city service partners, not only Barrie police but the County of Simcoe and Barrie Public Library, which also presented their budgets last night.
Property taxes are calculated based on the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation’s (MPAC) assessed value. MPAC last did a province-wide assessment in 2016, so these property values are significantly lower than actual 2024 market values.
