As the Town of Saugeen Shores prepares for next year's budget, it will see another steep increase to local policing costs.
Deputy Mayor and Police Services Board Chair Diane Huber presented next year's outlook to council and said the operating budget was projected to increase by 10.7 per cent next year.
"About 3.2 per cent of that relates to the addition of two uniformed sworn officers to frontline staff," she said. "Then 7.5 per cent of the potential increase reflects the realities of inflation, commodity and equipment pricing, increasing fees, contract obligations — collective bargaining led to a 3.5 per cent wage increase this year and it will be 3.5 per cent again next year."
The service will increase to 29 sworn officers next year.
Huber said while the cost of staffing was going up, there wasn't many requests on the capital side.
"There's really only two capital inclusions in the police budget that are of note. One is upgrades to the radio tower and supporting infrastructure," said Huber. "The other is the consideration of reinstating the Canine Unit. Ryker had to be retired last summer when his handler left the service and there's a lot of interest in the community to take that off the pause that we put it on."
Mayor Luke Charbonneau said it's a big cost to absorb but it's worth it.
"It's a pretty significant budget increase, 10 per cent, layered on top of last year which was also a pretty significant budget increase to the police service," said the Mayor. "So it's a lot of cash and council is going to have to figure out how that gets absorbed in the broader picture... I would say that I think Saugeen Shores is easily the best served community in the entire region from a policing standpoint, certainly in Bruce County."
Charbonneau said council and the board should have discussions to settle on the level of service per population target they are looking at.
The police board will develop an updated Strategic Plan this fall, which it says will set the framework for future priorities, core functions, and the provision of adequate and effective policing to meet community needs.
