The Sarnia Police Service's 2024 budget has been trimmed down from 12.1 per cent proposed in the draft document.
The Sarnia Police Services Board unanimously approved an increase of 9.98 per cent during its meeting Thursday.
The just over $33.4 million budget includes the addition of a crime analyst to support criminal investigations, a canine officer, two 9-1-1 operators and a corporate communications coordinator.
In September, the board asked the service to get the proposed increase under 10 per cent. Police Chief Derek Davis said the service took that direction and continued to refine the budget down to what they can survive with.
"The board's the boss, that's what they've told us to do and that's what we're going to do," said Davis. "I think we're going to be able to move forward with this. I'm happy that it's passed, and we look forward to doing the best we can with what we have."
The board also approved a request of a one-time infusion of $450,000 to the operating reserve fund after the service projected a reserve balance deficit of more than $29,000 at the end of next year.
Davis said he's a little nervous about the lack of reserve funding because he can't control the future.
"If we lose a couple of cars, if the building becomes an issue, if there's other things that I can't predict, we just don't have the cupboards stocked to be able to address those," said Davis. "However, what we are going to do moving forward is ensure that every dime of efficiency we can squeeze is going to go to make sure that we cover things off, and anything we can scrape that can goes back to the reserves, that's what we're going to do."
Davis added that this is something the service has already been doing.
The chief also discussed the need to "catch up" in a number of areas, saying they are where they are with the budget because of where they've been in the past.
"There are a whole bunch of things that we're trying to catch up," he said. "And I know it sounds like we're trying to jump out ahead, we're trying to catch up to current, and this is not going to happen overnight."
Davis was asked how the service went from a potential hike of 17.2 per cent, proposed in the first draft, down to under 10 per cent.
"So reserve was number one, that was probably the biggest area," he said. "So we've assumed the risk for the reduction of the reserves. And then there's operational pieces, like the MHEART piece, there's other frontline officer components."
Police Board Chair Paul Wiersma said he's very excited to have come to a consensus to approve the budget.
"And it was approved unanimously, so I think that shows a lot of support for it," said Wiersma. "We started with a 17.2 per cent budgetary ask, which we all acknowledged was not going to be supported. We've gotten it down to under 10 per cent and I think that's the best that we can do at this point."
Wiersma said the initial ask represented the needs of the service.
"But we know that the needs are such that we're not going to get all those needs addressed in one year," said Wiersma. "We really see this as a multi-year ask. So really, that 17.2 per cent acknowledges that there are needs and opportunities and challenges that we're going to have to address in the future."
While the draft budget received unanimous approval, the request of the infusion of $450,000 to the operating reserve fund did not -- Wiersma and Sarnia Councillor Chrissy McRoberts voted against the proposal.
"As a board member, I support that because we act in solidarity as a board," said Wiersma. "However, if we had not done that, we could've just assumed the risk and then see what happens, and if we were in a deficit position at the end of the year due to unforeseen events, then at that time we would have to reconcile it."
The nearly two digit increase comes one year after the board approved a historic increase in spending of 11.5 per cent.
The document will go before Sarnia City Council during budget deliberations on December 5.
-With files from Stephanie Chaves