Sudbury city council questions police budget increase

Morning North6:16Sudbury city council questions rising costs of policing

How much should a city pay to fund its police service? Greater Sudbury's police budget is going up, but is still considered to be bare bones. We have audio of city council discussing the new police budget.

Sudbury's police chief was on the hot seat at a city council meeting Tuesday, as councillors asked why the force needs more money.

The police services board approved a $53 million budget with a 1.9 per cent increase for 2016.

Chief Paul Pedersen said the extra money is needed to pay for salaries.

Councillor Michael Vagnini who is also vice chair of the police services board tried to reassure councillors that this budget is the lowest it can be.

"I can say that there's been a lot of work that has gone into this. I can also say that the budget is bare bones," he said.

"There's no other way to put it. If this is a skeleton, we've taken some ribs out."

Despite the increase to cover salaries, the police budgetcontains $100,000 in cuts.

Nevertheless, Coun. Deb McIntosh questioned why the police budget has been steadily increasing over the past decade.

She said it's increased $10 for every $1,000 in taxes paid since 2007.

"At some point the trend has to come back," she said. "So if it continues to grow, where does it stop?"

Pedersen said the service has made cost saving measures to make sure Sudbury's police budget does not reach Florida's level.