Greater Sudbury Police Service’s 2026 budget hike is down to 10.21 per cent from its previously approved 12.66 per cent.
This signals a $2,047,047 drop from the budget the board unanimously approved last month.
The reduced budget received the board’s unanimous approval during an emergency meeting on Friday which chair Gerry Lougheed called the previous day.
An emergency meeting has to be called when the chair is unable to give a full week’s notice, and the board needed the budget changes approved before next Wednesday’s finance and administration committee meeting of city council, at which they’re scheduled to present.
Mayor Paul Lefebvre was not in attendance on Friday, but Lougheed joined Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer and members Krista Fortier and Shawn Poland in approving the new budget.
Prior to Friday’s meeting, Chief Sara Cunningham said staff had already pared next year’s budget increase down to 12.24 per cent thanks to savings in benefit premiums and holding inflationary costs.
The additional change the board approved on Friday was pulling all remaining 2026-27 contributions to their police facility reserve fund.
Before Friday’s board meeting, the budget included a $1,699,500 contribution toward the reserve in 2026 and a $1,750,485 contribution in 2027.
(Police were anticipated to increase annual contributions by $500,000 per year, but these boosts had already been cancelled as part of the budget approved last month, which helped reduce it from its initial 16 per cent down to the 12.66 per cent originally approved.)
The police facilities reserve fund is intended to ramp up borrowing capacity to help pay for a proposed new police headquarters building, estimated to cost more than $170 million.
There’s no clear timeline for when this building will be constructed.
“I think it's pretty much common sense that we’re not going to build a building this year,” Lougheed said.
“If we do not ask for that contribution, in other words leave that reserve alone and don’t ask for a contribution for one year, that will in fact reduce the amounts we’re going to ask on Wednesday night. … We want to make sure we’re asking for the appropriate amount of money without creating additional burden to the taxpayer.”
Following the meeting, Cunningham added, “The municipality has to provide adequate and effective police service, and whether it’s us borrowing the money or the city borrowing the money, when we’re ready to go and build, hopefully there will be money available.”
The fund’s total currently sits at approximately $9 million.
In addition to shoring up money for a future police headquarters building, the reserve fund is drawn from each year to pay for repairs to their existing building.
Although Sizer, Poland and Fortier all expressed some hesitance to cancel reserves contributions, they ultimately voted in favour of the new budget direction.
With the police budget dropping by more than $2 million, the city’s base budget tax levy hike of 5.7 per cent is expected to drop.
The 5.7-per-cent municipal tax levy hike factored in prior police budget changes which had already brought it down to a 12.24 per cent increase, meaning the changes approved on Friday will carry a $1.7-million impact to the municipal levy.
Every $3.7 million equals a one-per-cent impact on the tax levy, meaning the police board’s Friday morning decision will drop the tax levy down by almost half a percentage point.
The rejigged 2027 police budget increase is now 8.68 per cent from 2026.
Between the two budgets, the grand total will see the police budget increase by 19.77 per cent between now and 2027 (their budget was $83,494,285 in 2025 and will reach $100,002,986 in 2027).
The police budget will be presented to city council members during the Nov. 12 finance and administration committee meeting, which is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. The meeting can be viewed in-person at the Lionel E. Lalonde Centre in Azilda or livestreamed by clicking here.
City council members will begin debating the municipal budget at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 2, with meetings scheduled for subsequent days as needed.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.