All Ontario municipalities should receive provincial funding to help pay their policing bills, not just those with OPP services, says Barrie Coun. Gary Harvey.
“The province has added additional funds to help support rural municipalities using the OPP, which should be done across the board to assist all taxpayers of the province,” said Harvey, chairman of the city’s finance and responsible governance committee.
In late November, the province announced it would be offering $77 million to 330 municipalities policed by Ontario Provincial Police to help offset what some local councils were calling unaffordable increases. This subsidy averages about $233,000 per municipality.
But the subsidy, so far, has not been extended to municipal police forces such as the Barrie Police Service.
In the city’s case, the police draft budget is 6.99 per cent or $4.8 million more in 2025, for a tab of $72.34 million this year.
Mayor Alex Nuttall said in mid-December that the city would request funding from the province, but was uncertain whether the province will offer funding for municipal police services.
The city’s Dec. 24, 2024 circulation list contains correspondence from the Town of Smiths Falls, requesting the province recognize that municipalities with local police services also continue to see significant cost increases and budgetary pressures in policing, which are directly impacted by OPP labour costs.
Smiths Falls requests that the province treat all Ontario municipalities equitably with support in funding to assist managing the increasing costs of policing. Its town council passed a motion to that effect Dec. 16, 2024, and sent it to Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
“(Barrie city) council should support this request taking all things into consideration that I am aware of, to date, prior to the budget presentation from the police,” said Harvey.
Police spending is part of the city’s operating and capital budgets, which set property taxes and service levels, and is scheduled to be debated and approved later this month.
Harvey said this year’s 6.99 per cent police budget increase is due to contractual commitments of the Barrie Police Services Board, along with hiring special constable officers for the city’s downtown. He noted the police budget is 95 per cent non-discretionary, comprising salaries and benefits, which is normal for police services.
“This (2025 Barrie police budget) increase is at the low end of the scale compared to other municipalities, whether they're policed by the OPP at as high as over 20 per cent and Peel Regional Police at 23.3 per cent," said Harvey, who has a background in law enforcement.
“(Barrie Police) Chief (Rich) Johnston and the (police services board) have done a good job in bringing a significantly lower budget request than what we are seeing across the province, all the while increasing their front-line complement where the help is needed the most," the councillor added.
The province has said the funding announced will help communities address the financial impact of a new contract agreement with the Ontario Provincial Police Association that was ratified this summer. The union said at the time that the four-year deal made OPP officers the highest paid in the province. It runs from 2023 to 2026 and includes retroactive raises of 4.75 per cent for the first year and 4.5 per cent for the second, as well as 2.75 per cent raises for the final two years.
Barrie’s police budget is usually about 20 per cent of the city’s total annual operating budget and its most expensive item.
This year’s police budget spending increase had been projected at 5.79 per cent, or $3.9 million more, for a total of $71.43 million.
But a downtown deployment initiative, requiring seven full-time special constables and costing $910,787 annually, is the additional cost to the police budget which hiked the increase to 6.99 per cent from 5.79 per cent.
Barrie’s 2025 police budget also includes $486,000 for a five-year operating lease of new conductive energy devices, called Axon Taser 10s.
A projected $524,000 surplus in this year’s police budget, and an operating reserve of $887,000, are both funding sources to pay for the Tasers.
The 2025 police budget also includes six new sworn officers. At present, Barrie police has 250 sworn officers and 125 civilian members.
The police budget is part of the city budget and thus requires council approval.
Councillors will receive 2025 budgets from city service partners — the County of Simcoe, city police and the Barrie Public Library — on Jan. 8, then hear presentations of these budgets Jan. 15.
General committee’s budget talks will be Jan. 22, with city council approval of the total operating and capital budgets on Jan. 29.
