Better budget communication planned for 2024, Waterloo region's police chief says

The Waterloo Regional Police Service and its board says it will work on a plan to better present its budget to regional councillors next year.

It comes after regional councillors approved a motion in committee earlier this month telling the police services board to consult with council and the public before approving its annual budget.

Coun. Colleen James, who brought the motion forward, said it's to encourage collaboration among stakeholders, especially in light of police asking for $214 million in 2023, an increase of $18.2 million from 2022. The budget was approved by the police services board in January.

"I do believe that there was a flaw in this process in terms of bringing us a final police budget without having an opportunity to speak with us, and essentially the community in a transparent way," James said.

The regional council decision was discussed during Wednesday's police services board meeting.

Police Chief Mark Crowell said he would look at best practices to be able to better present the 2024 budget.

"We look forward to learning points this year from our team as well as responding to requests for some further direction moving forward as we communicate our needs, wants and requirements," he said.

"Our priority is to ensure that we have cohesive, clear communication on all sides."

New faces on service board, regional council

Tony Giovinazzo, a police services board member and the CEO of the housing developer Activa Group, thanked Crowell for his presentation to regional council earlier this month and for responding to councillor questions. 

"There's various new faces around our table, around the regional council table, and whenever you have those types of changes, I always talk about communication as being pretty critical," Giovinazzo said.

"I just want to just really reinforce that everybody around this table takes our mandate about being board members on this police services board, and making sure that our community is safe and has effective policing, very seriously."

Ian McLean, a police services board member and the president and CEO of the Greater K-W Chamber of Commerce, said it was clear "there was some confusion this year."

"If we can clean up some of that communication, I think we'll have a better chance of kind of getting to the issues and with another year under all our belts, we get better and understand - because it's a complex set of equations," he said.

'Getting into the political realm'

Three members of regional council sit on the police services board: Chair Karen Redman, who also chairs the police services board, Coun. Doug Craig who represents Cambridge and Woolwich Mayor Sandy Shantz.

Shantz agreed with Giovinazzo that "there's a lot of learning to do in everyone's role — in the of the police services board and the role of regional council." She added that a communications plan that includes explaining the good things happening with the police service would help give councillors a better understanding of the service.

Craig said he felt the presentation by Crowell was "very good."

"But we're getting into the political realm of some councillors that were tripping up — no matter how we would have said it, would have tripped up the information we were providing," he said.

"I don't think we should overreact. I think we should just simply improve in small steps," he added. "The attitude of the board in terms of trying to improve things is very positive."

Final regional budget vote set for Feb. 22

Regional council has not yet approved its budget, which includes the police budget.

Some regional councillors have indicated they still have questions about the police budget. Crowell told CBC News he's happy to work with regional council to provide as much information as they can.

"But ultimately the process pieces are a dialogue from regional council to our board. It's legislated. There's precedent for how that's carried out," he said.

"We'd certainly take any feedback and direction on the process to this point this year and we look forward to seeing how the direction flows this year and in the future as well."

The final vote is scheduled for Feb. 22.