Sault Ste. Marie Police Service is projecting a $1.9-million deficit for this year, amid ongoing efforts to recover from a massive 2024 budget overrun.
On Wednesday, the local police services board heard the projected deficit is the worst case scenario, given that the police service is still waiting on revenues — primarily made up of provincial funding mechanisms — to roll in.
The anticipated budget overrun is directly tied to salaries and benefits, according to a report presented to the board by Angela Davey, manager of finance services at the police service.
“We are overstaffed currently, and that’s driving the budget overage,” Davey told police board members during the open portion of Wednesday’s meeting.
The police services board identified a $2.9-million deficit in the 2024 budget this past April — nearly half a million dollars more than the $2.5 million in police overspending initially confirmed by City of Sault Ste. Marie officials earlier this year.
At the time, the board attributed the budget overruns to an unprecedented number of off-duty officers with workplace injuries, a rise in major occurrences, and paying the additional full-time employees the police service had originally hired in anticipation of multiple retirements that never materialized.
Despite its belt-tightening measures — including a hiring freeze and reduced discretionary spending — the city’s police service expects to operate at a deficit throughout 2025.
Davey’s report to the police services board also noted that paid overtime for this year will come in around the $1-million mark, or roughly $800,000 over what’s been budgeted for overtime.
The majority of the overtime stems from support provided for investigations, according to the police service.
“I think we need to do an accurate job of predicting, and use the past to predict the future,” interim police chief Brent Duguay told reporters after Wednesday’s meeting.
“I think if we know we're consistently over in our overtime by a million dollars, say, I don't think we can really realistically believe you're going to be at $200,000 next year.”
Sault Ste. Marie Police Service has received more than $400,000 in additional revenue from provincial funding, but more than $100,000 of that will be used to offset a reduction in funding received from the province through a court security grant.
There is also one confirmed officer retirement for 2025, according to the finance manager’s report to the board.
The police service is fairly confident the province will approve two funding applications this year: a $861,870 Community Safety and Policing Grant, and a $500,000 ask for funding for the police service’s expansion to the Division 2 substation downtown.
“We budgeted for both grants as we were successful in the last round of competition, and feel strongly that our programs meet the provincial mandates for policing priorities,” Davey wrote in the report.
The finance manager noted there will be major expenditures anticipated for later this year, including ammunition, clothing and equipment.
Officers are also routinely paid out in the fourth quarter for their time spent in court.
“We try to schedule officer attendance while on-duty, but this does not always happen and is paid as per the parameters of the collective bargaining agreement,” Davey said in the report.
The next budget projection will be for the second quarter, which ends June 30. It’s expected the finance committee of the police services board should have that report in late July or early August.