Regional council votes for more time to review future police budgets

By Brandon Maher

Regional councillors are calling for more transparency when it comes to future discussions on police budgets.

A motion was passed at Tuesday's Administration and Finance Committee.

It calls on the Waterloo Regional Police Service Chief of Police to return to the former practise of presenting the police budget to council before it is finalized by the Waterloo Regional Police Service Board. 

The motion was put forward by Councillor Colleen James, who told the committee that there is a flaw in the process.

“I think that if we don't do this, and we don't push this forward, it really does a disservice to us and to our community.” James said to council.

The motion was passed with vocal support from regional councillors including Rob Deutschmann, Dorothy McCabe, Jim Erb and Jan Liggett.

“What's happened this year, it's too bad that it did happen, because we all had constituents coming before us and we could have brought those viewpoints forward in this draft budget.” Liggett commented.

The vote comes as Councillor Deutschmann puts forward a motion on Wednesday calling for this year's police budget to be rejected.

Waterloo Regional Police Services Mark Crowell said that he is open to further discussion regarding the proposed budget.

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