KITCHENER -- Waterloo Regional Police Service defended their request for a seven per cent increase at a regional council meeting Wednesday night.
Waterloo regional councilors are reviewing the 2020 budget in an attempt to bring down a property tax hike that is currently sitting at four per cent.
The police budget is only a portion of that but is still being looked at.
“I’m asking the chief and staff to go back and take a look at it with the police services board and be creative about how they fund it,” says Region of Waterloo’s Budget Committee Chair, Sean Strickland.
Waterloo Regional Chief of Police, Bryan Larkin says a big part of this budget is for the wellness of officers.
“We have to invest in wellness strategies and training initiatives but equally we need to provide a service to the front line,” says Larkin.
It has been a busy year for those officers on the front lines.
So far in 2019 there have been four homicides, 19 shootings and 17 road fatalities.
“As our population grows and if our frontline policing does not grow, [I always worry about] the workplace demand that comes along with that impact,” says Larkin.
Police have decreased their budget cost from their original number.
If the current Region of Waterloo budget was passes as is, it would be one of the largest tax increases in recent memory, according to Strickland.
