Agreed Melissa. This isn’t even asking for the defunding of the police. It’s asking for fiscal responsibility, which should be the bare minimum expectation of our tax dollars.
The other issue not addressed in this post is that the WRPS budgets are often only based on the previous years planned budget, not the actual amount spent. So even if they spend less or find efficiencies they’re asking for more based on a previous years planned budget, not the actual.
Thanks for all your advocacy and good information. I'm so bummed about the same old, same old at the Regional level.
If Council can't agree to make changes, I've been thinking about options.
One is to elect different people to council and most definitely to the PSB. Another is to look at how the province sets up the governance of the PSB and advocate for changes there.
I think it's telling that the people who are worried about a surplus in the police budget are able to cite sources and reports showing evidence of a surplus, but those who claim there is a minimal surplus provide no explanation or evidence.
I think there is an additional subtlety that gets missed in looking at the bottom-line surplus alone. For example, the bottom-line surplus in 2022 shows as $284K. But Council authorized revenue of $2.1M from the reserves, yet none of it was used. Council authorized a transfer of $5.3M to the reserves, but $6.3M was actually transferred. So there was roughly a $3M net transfer to reserves in excess of what Council authorized, which obscures the true extent to which police were overfunded. (Note however that in 2022 the overfunding wasn't driven by salaries the way it is in 2023.) For 2023, up to the end of Q3, the excess reserve transfers were $1.4M, beyond the $8M surplus that is currently showing in the Q3 YTD numbers.
Your solution “ WRPS should hit pause on new hiring – both officers and civilians – for at least a year. This breather is crucial to close the gap between authorized and actual strength, ensuring we’re not just chasing numbers but building a robust, ready-to-serve force.” Has to be the most ignorant opinion I have yet to read. The service is already at critically low numbers on patrol due to lack of hiring. You want to make that worse by pausing additional hiring… wasted 3 mins reading this shite
Agreed Melissa. This isn’t even asking for the defunding of the police. It’s asking for fiscal responsibility, which should be the bare minimum expectation of our tax dollars.
The other issue not addressed in this post is that the WRPS budgets are often only based on the previous years planned budget, not the actual amount spent. So even if they spend less or find efficiencies they’re asking for more based on a previous years planned budget, not the actual.
Thanks for all your advocacy and good information. I'm so bummed about the same old, same old at the Regional level.
If Council can't agree to make changes, I've been thinking about options.
One is to elect different people to council and most definitely to the PSB. Another is to look at how the province sets up the governance of the PSB and advocate for changes there.
What are your thoughts?
I think it's telling that the people who are worried about a surplus in the police budget are able to cite sources and reports showing evidence of a surplus, but those who claim there is a minimal surplus provide no explanation or evidence.
I think there is an additional subtlety that gets missed in looking at the bottom-line surplus alone. For example, the bottom-line surplus in 2022 shows as $284K. But Council authorized revenue of $2.1M from the reserves, yet none of it was used. Council authorized a transfer of $5.3M to the reserves, but $6.3M was actually transferred. So there was roughly a $3M net transfer to reserves in excess of what Council authorized, which obscures the true extent to which police were overfunded. (Note however that in 2022 the overfunding wasn't driven by salaries the way it is in 2023.) For 2023, up to the end of Q3, the excess reserve transfers were $1.4M, beyond the $8M surplus that is currently showing in the Q3 YTD numbers.
Your solution “ WRPS should hit pause on new hiring – both officers and civilians – for at least a year. This breather is crucial to close the gap between authorized and actual strength, ensuring we’re not just chasing numbers but building a robust, ready-to-serve force.” Has to be the most ignorant opinion I have yet to read. The service is already at critically low numbers on patrol due to lack of hiring. You want to make that worse by pausing additional hiring… wasted 3 mins reading this shite