Sudbury Police Services Board approves 2025 budget

The Greater Sudbury Police Services Board approved its 2025 budget on Wednesday, but since it’s part of a multi-year plan, the figures didn’t come as a surprise.

New police chief Sara Cunningham presented the numbers to the board. Since it was Year 2 of a multi-year budget, they simply re-adopted the financial plan.

The Greater Sudbury Police Services Board approved its 2025 budget on Wednesday, but since it’s part of a multi-year plan, the figures didn’t come as a surprise. (Photo from video)

"It’s much more efficient for staff to do the budgeting in this manner," said board chair Al Sizer.

"It takes a lot of hours to prepare a capital and operating budget, so this is the most efficient way to do it."

The board already approved a two-year operating budget and a four-year capital budget. There will be a 6.24 per cent increase in 2025, which Cunningham called "a maintenance year."

One of the largest expenses will be for new hires. The board previously approved hiring a total of 30 new police officers – 10 per year over three years. The first of those officers were sworn in earlier this week.

"They’re with their coach officers. They’re training. They are back here now," Cunningham said.

New recruits coming

"We have some at the police college -- we’re planning to hire 10 next year. So, we’ll see that kind of boost in our numbers by 2026."

Given that the budget was already approved, the status of a new police building remains on hold.

There is $7.3 million set aside in reserves for the project, but that’s nowhere close to the estimated $170 million needed.

Cunningham said recent problems with the current downtown facility led to unexpected repairs — costs paid out of the same building reserve fund.

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"We’ve asked our board every year to put away $500,000. Originally it was to debt finance a new building," she said.

"But as the chair said today, we’ve had to dip into that because again we have an infrastructure that we need to fix and replace some things. So, (the reserve fund) is now for future building and building maintenance."

There is also funding to purchase body-worn cameras for officers and replace the service’s 10-year-old radio system.

Sizer will present the 2025 police services budget to city council Nov. 15 for approval.