Notching their largest annual budget increase in recent history, the Greater Sudbury Police Service board OK’d a 12.66-per-cent 2026 budget increase during Wednesday’s meeting.
Noting that staff started out with an increase of approximately 16 per cent, GSPS Chief Sara Cunningham delivered a presentation on the budget.
With police following the city’s lead in drafting two-year budgets, Wednesday’s police board meeting also saw the board OK an 8.61-per-cent increase for 2027.
Following Cunningham’s presentation and a largely complimentary discussion lasting a total of less than one hour, both years’ budgets were approved unanimously without any changes. The hikes will push the service’s annual budget past $102 million by 2027.
Board vice chair Shawn Poland described the budget increases as unavoidable, with his comments limited to thanking those involved in drafting the budget for having done so.
After a series of questions, board chair Gerry Lougheed similarly described the increases as unavoidable given local expectations for police presence and the board’s mandate to deliver “adequate and effective policing.”
“I’m quite comfortable that this is a good budget,” Lougheed said.
Key highlights within the budget is fresh funding for six positions (five of which are new and one was previously funded by the province), collective bargaining ramping up staffing costs and cuts made to reach the 12.66-per-cent hike in 2026 from the initial 16-per-cent staff started with.
The six newly funded positions include one information technology position currently funded by the province for the service’s transition to a next-generation 911 system. With provincial funding coming to a close and GSPS still needing the position filled, Cunninghman said the service would have to begin footing the bill.
GSPS is also hiring four special constables to work the front desk, joining four special constables at the desk the board approved last year to help free up sworn members to work the front line.
“We’ve done that, we’ve hired four and we’d like to enhance that by four more, so covering our platoons and allowing for backfilling for vacation,” Cunningham said.
The remaining net new position is one wellness co-ordinator within human resources.
“Our No. 1 pillar is our members, and we currently have a sworn member doing that position, and so we’re looking to enhance in that area,” Cunningham said, adding that this new hire will carry a social services background to deliver wellness programming.
The budget process started out with a 16-per-cent hike in 2026 largely due to unavoidable fixed costs, Cunningham told the board on Wednesday, flagging such things as collective bargaining, contractual agreements and insurance hikes as contributors.
When it comes to collective bargaining, she told local media following Wednesday’s meeting that GSPS is already behind.
“We only allocated money of (sic) two per cent for 2026, and we’ll see it ratified five per cent in the first year, so we're playing catch up already,” she said. “If ratified again, we’ll see an increase of roughly 19.5 per cent over five years.”
To bring next year’s budget increase down to its current 12.66 per cent, a planned $500,000 increased contribution toward a new police headquarters was cancelled, $720,000 was pulled from reserves, and overtime and training budgets were not increased.
Cunningham noted that these budgets “probably should have” been increased, with the overtime budget in particular opening police up for financial risk, since overtime needs can be unpredictable. As such, she said, “We’re going to try and mitigate overtime as much as we can.”
Equity, diversity and inclusion funding toward such things as intercultural ridealongs and moose hunts was cut, though Cunningham said they’d seek out community partners to help continue these efforts.
Police are also putting off such expenditures as a boat replacement and driving vehicles for longer than they might otherwise.
Since 2022, GSPS has added 30 sworn members to their ranks, bringing their complement to an authorized strength of 304.
Meanwhile, they’ve accounted for the lion’s share of recent years’ City of Greater Sudbury tax increases. Between 2019-23, GSPS made up 11 per cent of the city’s gross budget, but contributed to 21.9 per cent of the tax levy jump.
GSPS has continued to account for the lion’s share of property tax increases, and is now projected to keep doing so for at least two more years.
GSPS approved an 8.09 per cent budget increase in 2024 (the city posted a tax levy jump of 5.9 per cent that year) and a 6.2-per-cent budget increase in 2025 (the city’s tax levy hike was 4.8 per cent)
The city’s long-range financial plan anticipates annual tax levy increases ranging from 3.2 per cent to 4.4 per cent over the next decade, though these numbers remain in the hands of city council.
Greater Sudbury Police Service is slated to deliver a presentation on their 2026/27 budget to the finance and administration committee of city council on Nov. 12.
City council will finalize Greater Sudbury’s 2026 and 2027 budgets in December.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.