‘Cheeky’ request delays budget

Cost of policing is largest expense for Region

Niagara regional council’s budget review committee approved the Niagara Regional Police 2022 operating budget in principle — but the issue still isn’t completely settled.

The committee of the whole approved the operating budget Thursday, minus a police board request for a $500,000 one-time contribution to the service’s reserves.

The police board wanted the extra funding as part of a proactive plan to defray extra salary costs expected in 2024, a leap year.

While that decision closed one chapter, a letter from police board executive director Deb Reid contained a new request for a $4.47-million chunk of the Region’s 2020 year-end operating surplus of $31 million, a move one regional councillor called “cheeky.”

St. Catharines Coun. Brian Heit wanted assurance the committee was only approving the $168-million police budget and not the $500,000 reserve contribution.

“Can you confirm that they have now removed half a million dollars that they wanted to put in a reserve for future staffing costs two years down the road?” Heit asked Todd Harrison, the Region’s treasurer and commissioner of corporate

services.

“Yes, they’ve removed the $500,000 as requested,” Harrison said.

“We can’t tell the police what to do with the money that we allocate to them,” Heit said. “Do they have the ability to direct or tell us what to do with the money that the Region has control over?”

“They have the opportunity to ask, but the regional council has the decision-making authority,” Harrison said.

“So should we give them an answer tonight? Because I’d like to tell them where to put it,” Heit said. “And that’s my polite way of saying it.”

Harrison’s response didn’t add any fuel to the fire.

“The motion that’s in front of you approved the $168 million that they’ve requested,” he said, in perfect deadpan. “It doesn’t mention the reserve transfer.”

That new request will be dealt with when council debates the levy part of its budget Dec. 9.

Lincoln Coun. Rob Foster said he was pleased the police had withdrawn the request for the extra $500,000.

“So obviously, they understood where we were coming from as the governing body on the finances,” Foster said. “I find that last comment within the motion coming back to us to be extremely cheeky, to say the least.”

Reid’s letter on behalf of the police board explained the $500,000 reserve request would have helped with budget pressures the board anticipates will increase in coming years due to inflation and wage settlements.

“With 90 per cent of the (police) budget to fund salary and benefits, a mitigation strategy required to redirect $1 million in base budget funds to cover two salary days will be a challenge,” Reid wrote.

In a separate announcement, the police board said it had agreed with Niagara Region Police Association on a new contract. The deal, which covers 764 uniformed members and another 303 civilian members, will give them all a two per cent wage increase each year for the next six years.

Lincoln Mayor Sandra Easton said she doesn’t complain about the police budget because the NRP delivers direct services to the municipalities that people want.

“The community has repeatedly expressed that they want police officers on the streets,” she said. “They want them in the communities. They want to see their faces. They want to know who they are — and that’s going to cost us.”

The budget guidance from the Region this year called for its departments, agencies and boards to keep their increases to two per cent. The police budget came in at about 4.5 per cent.

Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop said regional council annually deals with a police budget that exceeds the guidelines others usually follow.

“People ask for more policing, I get that,” Redekop said. “But if it is based on growth, one would think that the taxes generated by that growth would be able to cover some of these things …This is always a difficult debate, and one that makes me particularly uncomfortable.”