Some complain that the budget of the Toronto Police Service is a sacred cow, and the police always get what they want. In these days of scarce resources, this is more of an urban legend than reality. The Toronto Police Services Board pays serious attention to the fact that, since we ask for a large portion of the taxpayer’s money, we must be able to justify what we ask for. It has taken a number of concrete steps to make the budget and the budget process fully transparent. We know how much is spent and where it goes.
Now, the budget is presented and debated on a line by line basis. We work closely with the Chief and the rest of the Service in order to scrutinize all proposed expenditures of tax dollars.
The collective agreement dictates an enormous proportion of our budget, including all salary related issues such as wages, benefits and special pay such as overtime and court pay.
Through this process and throughout the year, the Board is diligent in working to contain costs and provide value for taxpayers.
