Hamilton Police Service has $567K remaining in budget, opening door for another surplus

The Hamilton Police Service (HPS) has about $567,875 remaining in its 2020 budget.

And while that would mean local police have a surplus, the service is also facing more unexpected costs related to COVID-19 that it hopes the province will help cover.

The police services board discussed the budget variance at a meeting Thursday. The report shows that the HPS has made roughly $400,000 less than expected, and has spent almost a million dollars less than it projected.

The majority of those savings came from employee-related costs, including delaying hires and cancelling training. 

Ward 6 councillor and board member Tom Jackson asked why there was a $567,875 surplus. Police Chief Eric Girt said the service's budget is "on target for the year end period."

Anna Filice, the service's chief administrative officer, said afterward that HPS also took about $600,000 out of reserves in order to avoid increasing the operating budget this year. And the service will face other pressures by the end of the year, including paying out overtime costs.

HPS is also looking at about $12,000 more in COVID-related costs than it anticipated earlier in the fall, Filice said. It initially expected to pay $538,000, and the actual cost is $550,000. 

The service is teaming up with the city to apply for a provincial grant to help cover costs related to the pandemic.

By year end, "that number will change," she said of the $567,875 surplus. "It's likely to go down."

While 2020 is an exceptional year, HPS has had budget surpluses in recent years that have prompted questions from the community and city council.

In the past, HPS has put some of that money into reserves, as well as buying equipment and helping to build a new downtown forensics building.