Guelph police are proposing a $3.5 million increase to its operating budget next year, totalling $61,399,520.
That’s a six per cent increase over 2023.
The total four-year operating budget is estimated at $274 million: $66,366,000 in 2025, $70,863,550 in 2026 and $75,403,900 in 2027.
“The proposed 2024-2027 budget reflects the resources required to provide adequate and effective policing for our rapidly growing city,” a report presented to the police board Thursday states.
The report also says that bringing on new staff immediately is essential, as the GPS has “lower staffing levels than other similarly sized police services in Ontario,” which is negatively impacting both service delivery and member wellness, it says.
That’s why police have included in the budget the hiring of six uniform and two civilian full-time equivalent staff members each year for four years, resulting in 32 new staff members by 2027 – more than a two per cent staffing increase each year.
To have the average number of officers other similarly sized municipalities do, the service would need an additional 19 staff members today, Police Chief Gord Cobey said in a previous meeting.
Given the staffing issues and an uptick in crime, Cobey said the service’s capacity to solve the crimes is “very low.”
For example, he said the service saw around 75,000 calls in 2022, and expects that to increase to around 90,000 this year.
But rather than hiring 32 new staff all at once, the additions are phased in the four-year budget to lessen cost impacts. However, the report states there are risks that come with “the staffing shortage, albeit reduced, that we will continue to experience.”
It will cost a total $2,937,000 million over four years, with the smallest amount coming out of the 2024 budget at $374,300.
Another “critical piece” of the 2024 budget is supportive staffing, with $1,062,400 designated to the WSIB budget – a number that will increase each year over the next four years.
“(When) a first responder is diagnosed with PTSD, it is automatically presumed to be related to their work,” Cobey said at the Oct. 5 board meeting.
From 2017 to July of this year, members "have attended to over 1,000 sudden deaths and homicides. They’ve attended to 11 cases involving children under five-years-old, 77 deaths by suicide, 106 accidental overdoses, and over 800 other deaths involving pre-existing medical conditions, or no foul play was involved.”
“We haven’t budgeted WSIB," he said. “If I’m away from work for a year, we don’t have the resources so that position gets staffed.”
The WSIB budget would then support members who need time away, and help to support members who remain to give the community the service they need, he said.
The 2024-2027 operating budget was approved by the board on Oct. 19. It will be open for public delegations on Nov. 15, and is scheduled to be approved by council on Dec. 6.
