Police use creativity to propose ‘real budget’ that holds to cap
Ottawa police are proposing an $18-million budget increase that would meet the three-per-cent cap on property tax increases laid out by city council — but not without some creative accounting that keeps taxpayers on the hook for much more.
The 2019 draft police budget was presented to the police board and city council Wednesday.
The budget, if approved, would see a gross police operating budget of $349.5 million, with 82 per cent of that money going towards $286 million in salaries. The average homeowner would pay $18 more to the police than last year for a total of $621.
Chief Charles Bordeleau called it a “real budget,” rather than one constructed to meet the tax cap first and needs of the city second.
“It’s a budget that I was directed to present with respect to the real needs of policing in Ottawa to keep Ottawa safe,” he said.
Early budget talks centred on what was initially proposed as a 5.1-per-cent tax rate increase for the police service. Coun. Diane Deans, the police board chair, directed the force to meet with city staff earlier in the budget process to find ways to reduce that proposed increase.
Those discussions, the force revealed Wednesday, ended with police coming up with three additional revenue sources — an unorthodox request for “one-time” funding of $4.8 million from the city’s reserves; $500,000 from a new crop of city-owned and -operated red light cameras, with all money going to city coffers and then redirected to the police; and another $500,000 in grant money.
But what the force says is “onetime” funding is actually funding built into its forecasted budgets for the next three years in varying amounts. From this year until 2021, the force will ask the city to give it $12 million from its reserve funds.
If this budget is approved by council, only the 2019 funding would be approved.
Mayor Jim Watson told city council Wednesday he would direct it to only approve half of what the police want, which would give them $2.4 million from city funds.
Deans has been vocal since she was sworn in as the new board chair in late 2018 that she will fight for more police resources if needed, but the board has a responsibility to taxpayers to try to limit any related costs, she said Wednesday.
That’s why, Deans said, she is directing the chief to bring back a list of budget options that brings down costs but “excludes any impact on front-line police services” to the board’s finance and audit committee meeting on Feb. 20.
The force says the budget, as currently presented, focuses money on suppression of gun violence and dealing with neighbourhood-based crime and social disorder trends. The budget would also see the force continuing to equip officers with the opioid medicine naloxone, and with Tasers.
Police said this budget addresses the city’s “increased demands” on the service, the force’s key operational priorities — community policing, gangs, violence against women and traffic — and will “stabilize staffing issues.”
Public delegations on the budget are set to be held on Feb. 25.