For third straight year regional council rejects Niagara Police budget, demands reductions from proposed 11.5% hike
Niagara Democracy Watch is The Pointer’s feature aimed at increasing the public’s awareness and political involvement in the Niagara Region by highlighting key agenda items, motions and decisions.
Niagara Police Services Board
Date: December 18 - 9:30 a.m. | Full agenda | Watch live
With a week to go before Christmas, municipal council business is mostly done for the calendar year. The Niagara Regional Police Services Board, however, has its final meeting of 2025 the morning of December 18th. While Thursday’s meeting has several regularly scheduled quarterly and annual reports, it is a late addition to the agenda that will draw the most attention.
On December 11th, at their Budget Committee of the Whole meeting, Niagara Regional Council approved a motion that “the Niagara Regional Police Service (NRPS) and Police Service Board 2026 budget be reduced by approximately $2.7 million.”
The motion follows a pattern during the current Council term where the police board presents a budget request that accounts for the largest increase to the Region’s Operating Budget and General Tax Levy. For three straight years, these large requests to Regional Council have been sent back to the Board for reconsideration.
During the 2024 budget deliberations, the Board approved the submission of a budget request of 7.1 percent, the largest increase in recent memory. Regional Council deferred a decision on the budget sending it back to the Board “to review the budget submission and provide additional information based on the feedback received.” The Board returned with a revised request for a 6 percent increase, largely made up from the removal of six proposed staffing additions that then Regional Chair Jim Bradley described as “more nice to haves, then essentially needed”. Regional Council approved the 6 percent increase associated with the 2024 Operating Budget. The six positions removed were part of the proposed 2025 budget.
The approval of the 2025 NRPS budget by Regional Council took a more circuitous route than the 2024 deliberations.
An initial 15.1 percent increase by the NRPS was scaled down to stagger the hiring of 64 new staff members throughout the year, reducing the request to an approximately 13.2 percent increase. Regional Council approved that increase at their November 14, 2024 Budget Committee of the Whole Meeting, albeit by a 13-12 vote.
A week later, however, Councillor Tom Insinna (Fort Erie) successfully moved a motion requesting a further budget reduction of $1.067 million. Councillor Insinna’s dollar amount aligned with the cost of hiring four additional positions that had been budgeted. While Regional Council determines an “envelope” of funding for the NRPS, the Community Safety & Policing Act (CPSA) prevents politicians from imposing operational decisions on police services, a point noted by Chief Bill Fordy at the subsequent Board meeting to consider the $1.067 million budget request.
While the Chief presented approximately $800,000 in possible cuts for the 2025 budget, the Board, which includes three sitting Regional Councillors, passed a motion indicating “that the Niagara Police Service Board decline Regional Council’s request for a further budget reduction of $1.067 million.”
At Regional Council’s final meeting to determine the 2025 consolidated operating levy, Councillor Insinna made another attempt to cap the police budget at a 10 percent increase. His motion failed by one vote, but a minor amendment proposing a staggered hiring process for the police in 2025 hires passed, reducing the impact on the levy by a mere 0.17 percent.
Going into budget considerations for 2026, Councillor Bob Gale (Niagara Falls) in May of this year brought forward a motion that Departments and the Region’s ABC (Agencies, Boards and Commissions), which includes the Niagara Police, be directed to adhere to a “guidance rate” limiting increases of operating budgets to a 3.5 percent.
Gale had unsuccessfully attempted to get a similar guidance motion approved during the 2024 budget deliberations. His motion argued that consolidated general levy increases during the term had “placed a heavy, unaffordable and an unsustainable tax burden on property taxes for both residents and local businesses.”
It is not an uncommon goal for a council to come in with an operating budget with a smaller increase in the last year of their term, prior to the next municipal election.
At the Police Services Board meeting the following month Chief Fordy described the 3.5 percent guidance as akin to “defunding the police”.
The related report on the Board’s agenda posited that adhering to the Region’s direction would mean a staffing reduction of approximately 50 sworn police officers, additional costs related to severance agreements, and a depletion of capital funding for such items as vehicles, facilities, and equipment.
“It’s not sustainable and it does not reflect the realities of a growing and increasingly complex policing environment,” Chief Fordy concluded.
On November 27th, Chief Fordy was front and centre delivering the NRPS budget request to Regional Councillors. The presentation and related question period lasted approximately two and a half hours.
Niagara Police is requesting approximately $236.9 million, which represents an 11.5% increase over the approved 2025 operating budget. The Region’s Finance staff estimated that the request would add 4.55 percent to the operating levy. The average household, with an average property assessment value of $298,000, would see an increase on their property tax bill of $97.
It is not surprising that the Niagara Police budget has the largest impact on the Region’s Consolidated General Levy Budget. The Chief explained that the general levy funds 92 percent of the police budget. With limited Provincial funding and shrinking revenues, there is an even greater reliance on taxpayers to fund police operations. Regional councillors frequently bemoan the lack of provincial funding during the annual budget deliberations.
In addition, inflation and collective agreements mean a 7.95 percent increase to the base budget, at the outset. The base budget represents the restatement of the 2025 operating budget in 2026 dollars. The proposed 2026 budget has a 3.27 percent increase in what are described as program changes. The remainder of the increase (0.28 percent) is associated with capital financing.
The 19 proposed program changes identified in the budget will result in a net increase of 74 positions, encompassing 65 sworn officers, 33 of which are considered frontline, and nine civilian staff. The Niagara Police has seen staffing increases of approximately 100 members over the preceding two years and, in what the Chief characterized as an effort to be fully transparent, the Region can expect requests for an additional 102 members in 2027 and 64 in 2028.
The related report to Regional Council justified the staffing additions as in keeping with the Services’ four-year strategic plan and necessary to respond promptly to calls, enhance proactive policing, improve clearance rates and meet the requirements of the Community Safety and Policing Act for adequate and effective policing.
“As a human-resource-intensive organization, the Service relies heavily on adequate staffing to maintain operational effectiveness, public safety, and reputation,” the report details.
The report also warned of member burnout, elevated clearance rates and reactive, as opposed to proactive, policing, if the “phased increase of staffing” is not maintained.
While the sticker shock of a second straight, more than 10 percent increase to the Niagara Police budget is understandable, it could have been worse. The original iteration of the police operating budget came in at a 13.6% increase, equal to $241,361,974. The Board referred the matter back to the Chief to consider further budget reductions.
The one major program that got eliminated in the effort to mitigate the budget impact was the Body Worn Camera (BWCs) initiative. Niagara Police, a late adopter in the implementation of the technology, had presented a report and plan in January to the police board, which was unanimously approved. A public consultation process followed.
Other mitigation measures to the budget included the staggering of other program changes, the repurposing of some positions, a decrease in capital financing and the use of alternate funding sources for two projects.
Chief Fordy buttressed his presentation to Regional Council with statistics. One of his final slides in his presentation listed percentage increases in various crime categories for 2023-24: homicide investigations (up 25 percent), human trafficking investigations (64 percent), child abuse investigations (11 percent), domestic violence investigations (156 perccent) and fatal collisions (74 percent), and the presence of 535 sex offenders and 1,353 repeat offenders in the Niagara Region.
Like the 2025 budget deliberations, a series of motions were introduced regarding the Niagara Police budget request.
Councillor Insinna, seconded by Councillor Brian Heit (St. Catharines) unsuccessfully attempted to get the budget referred to the Police Services Board to reduce the proposed budget increase by 2 percent. Councillor Peter Secord (St. Catharines) moved a motion to get the police budget approved that evening (November 27), as opposed to waiting until the consideration of the final budget. Secord’s motion also failed, setting the stage for further debate and discussion regarding the police budget at the December 11th Budget Committee of the Whole meeting.
After the consideration of some other items impacting the levy, the proposed increase to the Region’s general tax levy sat at 6.98 percent. Councillors Insinna and Heit, once again, attempted to secure a reduction in the spending envelope the Council was prepared to approve for the Niagara Police.
Prefacing his comments that he had consistently asked all departments “to see what they could do” during the budget process, Insinna moved a motion that the Police Services Board look for a reduction of $2.7 million in their budget. He admitted that the impact of such a reduction would be a mere 0.5 percent off the levy. He characterized his request as an “olive branch” asking the police to “please look a second time.”
Councillor Heit emphasized the continual increase in staffing additions at the NRPS.
“In the past four years they’ve added over a 100 staff. This year they are looking at over 60 and next year they’re looking at over hundred new staff members. As we talk about affordability, we cannot afford these kinds of increases.”
Councillor Pat Chiocchio (Welland), who also sits as Chair of the Police Services Board, was almost apoplectic, in his reaction to the latest attempt to reduce the budget. He offered that the board had done their due diligence in preparation of the budget, had been open and transparent in providing answers to questions. He pointed out that after attending various lower tier municipal councils for deputations, the sentiment was always the same, for a greater police presence in those communities.
“Yes, it’s council’s prerogative to send it back to the board. We’ll take another look at it, but I don't want you to think that we didn't try hard. We did our best. We don't want to see an increase overall. Asking us to go back and cut back another $2.7 million? Maybe they can do it, but it's going to come with risk. That's all I'm going to say. It's going to come with a safety risk,” Chiocchio warned.
Fellow Police Service Board member, Councillor Laura Ip (St. Catharines) pointed out the dilemma with the police budget.
“The bulk of this is contractually obligated. It is integrated with all the increases. I don’t know that we’ll be finding efficiencies, but certainly staff can look at making some cuts.”
When the vote of Council finally occurred, the referral passed on a 15-12 vote.
The Niagara Regional Police Board had an already scheduled Board meeting for December 18th. Earlier this week a report was added to the agenda in response to the Region’s request.
Staff is recommending that the Board approve mitigation options that would equal $1,350,000 or half of the amount requested by the Region. The amount would represent a 0.6 percent reduction to the police budget, making the increase over the 2025 operating budget 10.9 percent or $235,551,521. The impact on the Region’s General Tax Levy would be a quarter of a percent (0.25 percent).
The staff has proposed eight mitigation options, half of which are deferral of position start times from January 1st to July 1st. In addition, two Sergeants proposed for a Modified Work Accommodation Program have been removed, with the hiring of the program’s occupational therapists being staggered. A $200,000 transfer from the operating budget to an Employee Future Benefit Reserve has been removed with the hope it will be made up by any annual surplus. A reduction in the administrative supplies line item has been made by approximately $23,000. Finally, the Niagara Police is hopeful that there will be an increase in provincial funding for the Increase Court Security and Prisoner Transportation revenue and have accommodated for such an increase in the mitigation measures.
The report does not explicitly discuss any risks with the eight mitigation measures but notes that any further reductions would “necessitate a deliberate, strategic, and evidence-based approach to ensure that cost-cutting measures do not compromise the Service’s ability to provide adequate and effective policing to the Niagara community.”
Although the Region had a place setter in their meeting schedule noting the possibility of a special Council meeting on the evening of December 18th, it has since been removed. The Region’s letter to the Police Service Board requesting consideration of the budget decrease indicated that the meeting to consider the Region’s 2026 Operating Budget and General Tax Levy will happen in the new year.
More to come.
The related Niagara Police Services Board report can be read here.
Past reporting:
Email: [email protected]
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