Wrong number initially shared for cost of total Hamilton police budget

As City of Hamilton staff work to lower the 2024 budget, there’s been some confusion around the total cost for policing in Hamilton.

According to Ward 2 City Councillor Cameron Kroetsch, the total police budget that was calculated last week – roughly $213 million – didn’t include capital costs that the city is required to cover for policing.

Those requirements actually bring the total police budget to roughly $214 million, which is an 8.41 per cent increase from last year.

Both councillors and Hamilton’s police board say it was a result of miscommunication as well as a difference in the way the budget is formatted.

“I think what caused the confusion is that for a long time we’ve been looking at what the police board asks for in terms of an increase but not considering the total amounts for policing,” Kroetsch said.

“And there are some amounts for policing that are already in the city’s budget that were already loaded in there before the police asks come forward.”

READ MORE: Hamilton Police defend $20M budget increase request at city hall

The $213 million that was assumed as the total before didn’t include capital costs for policing, fees that the city is required to cover that are separate from the board’s operation budget.

“Capital costs are equipment, buildings, things like that, the new 911 system, anything capital related, roof repairs,” Hamilton Police Services Board Vice Chair Fred Bennink said.

Those capital costs were reported separately from the operating budget which caused some confusion and ended with the wrong total in council last week.

“What we do is we consider those assumptions in the city’s budgeting process and we put them in there, we don’t ask police to come forward and ask for them because they’re not required to under legislation,” Kroetsch said.

Kroetch, Ward 8 City Councillor John-Paul Danko and the police board all say it was just a miscommunication.

“Where the numbers come from, I don’t think it really matters, we have the number, we know what it is, council will now know what it is and what the increases are and so we’ll go from there and we’ll discuss,” Bennink said.

They also want to avoid this kind of confusion in the future. Krotech is hoping that for the 2025 budget, the two costs could appear as a total sum so that the full amount for policing is clear.

READ MORE: Hamilton residents voice concerns at annual budget meeting

Kroetch and Danko say both the city and police board following the same format would also help.

“I think it’s just some discrepancies in the format that police is reporting versus the format that it was being reported to council and what was being communicated to council and therefore how we were communicating with residents,” Danko said.

“I think it is important that we’re reporting both the same way and we’re communicating the same numbers to the public right from the very beginning.”

Danko adds that he would also like to see the total amount in the future so that they can discuss the remainder after the capital costs are subtracted.

The Hamilton Police Board will hold a special meeting on Feb. 13 regarding the budget and it will be livestreamed.