“There’s nowhere to cut,” VandeGraaf said in presenting police budget to Cobourg Council

Photo by Cecilia Nasmith, Northumberland 89.7 FM News

By: Dan Jones, Northumberland 89.7 FM News, Local Journalism Initiative.

Cobourg Police Chief Paul VandeGraaf once again defended his 2026 proposed budget, which would see a 20.5 percent increase from last year’s police budget.

VandeGraaf went before Municipal Council Monday afternoon stating this budget has zero discretionary funding and reflects the true cost of policing.

911 dispatch fees with Owen Sound are going up, there is a four percent increase to staff wages and benefits and some part-time hires and moving to full-time capacity.

Of the approximately $12 million budget estimate, 81 percent will go to staff wages and benefits. Court administration and security costs are going up as well. VandeGraaf said 11.5 percent of the budget will go to ensuring that investigations reach the conviction stage. He stated policing legislation now requires expedited discovery of all evidence to defendants.

“There’s nowhere to cut. So in a year of 20.5 percent, it sure would have been nice to lean that out to get you guys down to 16 or 15 percent, but unfortunately to get to those numbers, we leaned out everything,” said VandeGraaf.

The Community Policing Act has required Cobourg Police to spend $900,000 to become compliant within the legislation. Increased costs for mental health training, more equipment and updated armour for police cruisers are pushing up costs.

For the past ten years VandeGraaf said police budgets have been operating in a deficit and that budgets have been very reliant on Corporate Services Revenue. VandeGraaf explained that the budget of last year did not reflect what it cost to police in Cobourg, as the department dipped into its reserves to offset rising expenditures.

Councillor Adam Bureau, who also sits on the Police Services Board said this budget is a catchup year for previous mistakes.

“Yes, this is the catch up year for all of those years of mistakes. Maybe we should have had the three percent or four percent. There are so many compiling factors happening in this budget right now,” Bureau explained in referencing wage negotiations.

Bureau explained that he anticipates that the proposed police budget for 2027 would be in the single digits.

The number of police calls are going up as is the staffing requirements per shift.

If the 20.5 percent budget is passed, it would mean a 4.8 percent tax increase on the Town budget. If it is not passed, conciliation and arbitration are options.

The meeting at one point devolved as Mayor Lucas Cleveland wanted VandeGraaf to address “allegations” of financial mismanagement by the Police Board in previous years.

Bureau and VandeGraaf both took responsibility for the current budget situation, with VandeGraaf adding he believes the Police Board too is owning up to its participation. Council took the presentation for information purposes and no decision on the police budget was made.