Sudbury police service aims for $1M budget increase

Morning North6:58City councils in the northeast

We brought you some of the discussion held at different city councils in the northeast. In Sudbury a request for an extra $1 million dollars for police services, in Sault Ste Marie, a request for $1 million from Essar Steel, and in Timmins, it was Handi-Transit.While Sudbury city council tries to hold the line on spending, the city's police department is asking for more money.

The budget approved by the police services board yesterday is $1 million more than last year, an increase of 2.6 percent.

• The exploding cost of policing in Canada

Board member and Ward 3 city councillor Gerry Montpellier says most of the police budget is salaries, leaving few places to cut.

"I would love to see a zero per cent but, in the end, I'm also a firm believer in no layoffs. When you're talking about staff cuttings, that's not a good thing in the policing department," said Montpellier.

"When I started hearing from the chief that we're not after fancy guns and fancy gizmos and we seem to be OK that way, that kind of puts me at ease."

Montpellier said the police are controlling costs by planning to hire more "safety officers" who don't carry guns or make arrests, but start at a lower salary than regular constables.

In recent years, Sudbury city council has complained about rising police costs.

During the election campaign, when Mayor Brian Bigger first pledged to freeze property taxes,he promised that there would be no "sacred cows" when it came to cutting down the budget, referring to the police and fire departments.