Police board proposes $20M budget increase with few comments from community
Posted Oct 28, 2025 07:19:20 AM.
Last Updated Oct 29, 2025 05:10:56 AM.
Feedback on the 2026 budget was limited at the Waterloo Regional Police Service Board public input session on Monday as the board eyes a potential $20 million increase next year.
The requested proposal, unveiled earlier this month, is $272.6 million, a roughly 8 per cent operational budget increase from the year prior and a 7 per cent increase to the police portion of next year’s property taxes.
It was the second of two public input sessions, with no delegates at September’s meeting and only four delegates making presentations on Monday.
“I worry that silence might be mistaken for satisfaction and that the police services board might assume residents that the WRPS is on the right track. I don’t believe that’s true,” said Melissa Bowman, a delegate at Monday’s meeting. “In fact, I think the lack of turnout says more about the process than about the level of public interest.”
Bowman proposes that the board and the Region of Waterloo tackle issues of housing, mental health supports, youth programming, and more instead of “throwing more officers at the issues.”
The roughly $20 million increase in the 2026 budget is expected to contribute significantly to adding 20 uniformed officers to the service’s force.
“The argument for additional officers is often based on comparisons to the Big 12 municipal services,” said Rob Deutschmann, a delegate. “This has always been an arbitrary and incomplete measure. Those municipalities include Toronto, Niagara, and Windsor.”
A recent report indicates that Waterloo Region is 12 per cent below the other “Big 12” when it comes to the number of officers per 100,000 population. Those municipalities include Toronto, Windsor, London, Hamilton, Ottawa, Greater Sudbury, Niagara Region, Peel Region, Durham Region, York Region and Halton Region.
“We should not use the average of unrelated cities as justification for expanding the force here,” said Deutschmann.
The Waterloo Regional Police Services compliment of uniformed officers increased by 18 last year, and by a total of 138 since 2019.
The police services budget will need approval before being finalized later this year.
