Once Again, Niagara, Ontario Cops Defy Region’s Budget Target With Hefty Cost Increase

By Doug Draper

The Niagara Regional Police Service is once again tabling an annual budget that defies the 1.4 per cent target set by the regional government.

Niagara Region's Police Chief Debbie Southall delivers regional council another over-the-top bill for policing

At a regional budget meeting this January 14, Niagara Region’ Police Chief Wendy Southall tabled a budget that calls for a 5.1 per cent increase that would mean a jump in the NRP’s operating budget to $127 million this year.

Southall told regional councillors she’d have to make cuts that would equal laying as many as 30 constables to meet their budget target, something she said she is not prepared to do.

This is the same kind of way-out-of-line budget hike e the NRP has come to the regional council with in previous years and, once again, most of the increase is being attributed to salary increases – totaling around three per cent per year – awarded to the police union through the province’s provincial arbitrators.

The union and provincial arbitration board obviously do not give a fig about concerns expressed by regional councillors, time and time again, that Niagara’s taxpayers simply cannot afford these kinds of cost increases, particularly during a time of economic hardship for many of this region’s residents. The fact that they are settling on salaries in the same range as those officers are award in the Greater Toronto Area – even though the cost of living in Niagara is significantly lower – doesn’t seem to matter either.

It may be easy for some to slam Southall for all of this, but she is really only the purveyor of the bad news.

It is a police union that makes salary and benefit demands that show no respect for the burden placed on the rest of the community and a provincial arbitration system that cow tails to the union’s demands that are the major problem. Once the wage hikes are approved, there is very little Southall can do to keep her budget in line since salaries and benefits make up more than 90 per cent of it.

Furthermore Southall and her administrative board couldn’t lay off constables if they wanted to since the province sets the number of officers serving in each region under the Ontario Police Act.

One answer may be for municipalities across Ontario to press the provincial government to amend the police act so that they have the same power as municipalities in the United States to start laying officers off if the budget becomes too much of a burden for their taxpayers. Another answer may be for municipalities to demand an end to the provincial arbitration system and insist, instead, that they call the final shots when it comes to approving contracts with police.

Perhaps in a provincial election year, municipalities might finally get some action on these matters.

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