Regional council has quashed an attempt by regional councillor Rob Deutschmann to get the Waterloo regional police budget down another $4 million to reduce the burden on taxpayers.
Deutschmann tabled his motion during this morning's administration and finance committee meeting citing cuts the region is considering to get its budget down to a target 8 per cent tax hike.
He believes the police service board should demand the same with a further $4 million in cuts.
The motion asked the Waterloo Regional Police Service Board to present a net levy impact of no more than $248.5 million, down from the board-approved budget of $252.5 million, which represents a 8.4 per cent increase over last year and will fund the hiring of 18 more officers.
Coun. Sandy Shantz, who sits on the police board, said they've already spent time going back and forth with staff to make $6.3 million in cuts since the draft budget was presented in September.
"We have had those tough decisions and made those hard choices," reiterated Regional Chair Karen Redman.
Coun. Jim Erb said he has full confidence in the administration of the police services board in looking at the budget to making the necessary adjustments to keep the community safe.
But Deutschmann, who sparred with police chief Mark Crowell during a regional budget meeting last month over what he called a lack of transparency over the need for the new hires, said he doesn't have faith in the information presented by the police service and contends council is entitled to final approval.
"I think it's a fair amount," Deutschmann said of the suggested $4 million cut. "They're not bound by it. They can take a look at their own budget and come back with a counter proposal."
"They have reserves, they have other things they can do. They haven't done enough," he said.
"We need all hands on deck to assist us to reduce the tax levy we are imposing on residents of our region."
Coun. Chantal Huinink was one of six councillors who supported the motion, saying if the police service wants to fight the region over the budget at the provincial level and if the province agrees with police, "then they can help us pay the bill."
She referred to the recent $77 million handout the province gave to municipalities struggling with budget increases presented by Ontario Provincial Police.
"If the province has kicked money into supporting OPP budgets, they should with this as well," she said.
Coun. Pam Wolf wanted to amend the motion, calling it "hostile" as worded and suggesting the amount to further reduce the budget, if any, should be left open.
Her motion was defeated.
Coun. Doug Craig called Deutschann's motion an attempt to deflect from the regional budget. He said that while police service had done "an excellent job" at reducing its budget, the region is still staring down a 10-11 per cent increase with a little over a week left to go until final budget day.
"It's not looking good folks. I'm not supporting anything near 10-11 per cent," he said, suggesting the region consider early January for a final decision instead.
That comment concerned Coun. Colleen James who said council should not be deferring the budget process because a few didn't want to make decisions early on.
The next public input meeting on the 2025 regional budget is tonight starting at 5:30 p.m.
The final meeting of the strategic planning and budget committee is Dec. 11.
