The elephant in the community safety committee room Wednesday wasn’t the 2025 city police budget.
But while councillors heard a presentation from Barrie police on measuring their services, next year’s budget — and its increase — loomed large.
At this point, the 2025 police budget is $71.43 million, which is $3.9 million or 5.79 per cent more than this year.
“Although this percentage increase is higher than anyone would like to see, as it is above the rate of inflation, it is important to note that the recent survey for the automated speed enforcement camera funds has shown that residents want more police officers patrolling our streets and keeping our community safe,” Coun. Gary Harvey, chairman of the city’s finance and responsible governance committee, said before Wednesday’s meeting.
The city survey, which was conducted June 3 to Sept. 15, asked: "If there is a surplus of funds from the automated speed enforcement (cameras) program, what are the top three areas where the money should be reinvested, to improve road safety in Barrie?"
Number one was more monitoring and/or enforcement by Barrie police.
Michael Speers, a longtime Barrie resident and critic of city police spending, maintains his stance.
“The police have been defunding our city for years with budgets that take money away from actual crime prevention measures — things like housing, shelters, food programs, harm reduction and other supports,” he said Wednesday. “It’s time to start defunding the police so we can build a true community for everyone.”
While the 2025 Barrie police budget still requires approval from city council as part of its operating and capital budget process later this year and into 2025, Harvey said he understands the reasons for 5.79 per cent more.
“The majority of the increase request is the cost of the new contract wages that the police services board bargained with the police association, from what I understand,” he said. “The other significant cost to all first-response organizations in Ontario is Nextgen 911, which is mandated.”
The Ward 7 councillor also said 4.41 per cent of the police budget increase is non-discretionary, and includes a 1.52 per cent carry over from 2024.
“The calls for service have increased dramatically from 2020 to 2023 without an increase in police officers,” Harvey said. “That means the officers have less time for community engagement, proactive patrols and traffic enforcement.”
Calls for service totalled 81,513 in 2023, 71,071 in 2022 and 73,622 in 2021 and 66,127 in 2020.
At this point, the 2025 police budget includes six new sworn officers.
Police officials have also said the budget increase is from the collective agreement which pays their salaries and benefits, and the annualized cost of new officers.
Salaries and benefits are about 95 per cent of the entire police budget. Barrie police presently have 250 sworn officers and 125 civilian members.
Also increasing next year’s budget is an expenditure for new conductive energy devices, commonly known as Tasers.
The Axon Taser 10s have a $783,065 cost, which caught Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall by surprise at a recent police board meeting. Nuttall did not attend Wednesday’s community safety committee meeting.
“Where we target money is where we see results,” said Coun. Bryn Hamilton. “But we’re still early in any budget talks.”
The 2024 police budget is $67.5 million, or a 6.78 per cent increase from 2023, when it was $63.24 million.
Barrie has received a letter from the Town of Wasaga Beach, saying its historical Ontario Provincial Police bill increases by approximately five per cent, but that it is 22.8 per cent more for 2025. The town says it’s disputing the bill and asking the province to absorb any increase above five per cent.
Barrie’s police budget is usually about 20 per cent of the city’s total annual operating budget, and its most expensive item; the annual operating/capital budgets set service levels and property tax increases in Barrie.
The police budget is part of the city budget, and thus requires council approval.
Wednesday’s community safety committee meeting was about key performance indicators, commonly called KPI. They can be described as metrics to quantify performance and measure progress during a period of time, such as a year, for example.
Among the measurements are high-harm crimes, collisions, RIDE checks, impaired driving, victim satisfaction, proactive patrols and people in crisis.
But it was the police budget that was really being measured Wednesday.
“Barrie is a safe city,” said Police Chief Rich Johnston. “The challenge is how do we communicate that better.”
