2025 Draft Budget Focused on Service Enhancements, Increased Staffing and District Policing Model

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, November 13, 2024   8:46 am

(Ottawa) – The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) tabled its 2025 Draft Operating and Capital Budget to the Ottawa Police Service Board (OPSB) today, highlighting service improvements and community safety initiatives.

The Draft Budget is aligned with the OPSB’s strategic priorities and community feedback and includes a tax rate increase of 2.9% and a 1.5% assessment growth increase.

"This Draft Budget is designed to meet Ottawa's key public safety needs and will assist us in serving the residents and businesses of our community better," said Chief Eric Stubbs. "It is designed to address gaps in our service and focuses on building public trust while advancing the strategic priorities set by the Ottawa Police Services Board. The OPS continues its commitment to becoming a trusted partner in building an inclusive, equitable, and safe Ottawa."

Service Highlights

• District Policing Model: The District Model will continue to tailor policing to the unique needs of Ottawa's urban, suburban, and rural communities. Increased staffing for Neighbourhood Resource Teams, Youth, Traffic, and Community Policing Officers will return more officers in community roles through the Staffing Stabilization Plan in 2025. By January 2026, an updated operational map will incorporate four districts, reallocating uniform police resources to better serve Ottawa's neighbourhoods.
• Staff Stabilization Strategy: The Service will address critical staffing gaps in frontline and specialized units such as Traffic Enforcement, Intimate Partner Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse, and Fraud. In 2025, 50 new positions, including 32 funded by a 1.5% increase in assessment growth, will support OPS’s response to Ottawa's growing population.
• Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID): Investments in CID will enhance services for victims, including more investigative capacity and the ability to address staffing needs through additional sworn officers, special constables, and civilian roles.

Board Oversight and Community Engagement

"To ensure the Draft Budget meets community needs, the Board and OPS engaged residents through neighbourhood conversations, discussion with community and community leaders as well as data analysis and polling,” said OPSB Chair Salim Fakirani. “Residents emphasized a need for stronger relationships with OPS, increased police visibility, and responsive service delivery. Key concerns include traffic, gun violence, equity, hate crimes and youth engagement. We welcome feedback from the public on the Draft Budget and have planned an upcoming Finance and Audit Committee to receive delegations."

Federal and Provincial Funding: New Services

OPS is in the process of finalizing federal and provincial funding to support the following initiatives:

• Parliamentary District: A dedicated unit to bolster the Ottawa Police Services’ presence around the Parliamentary campus.
• Alternative Mental Health Support Project: Full funding for a community-led program to direct certain mental health related calls in Centretown to specialized mental health service providers.
• Special Constable Expansion: New special constable roles in fraud, cybercrime, forensic identification and hospitals to free up sworn officers for core policing functions.
• Mounted Unit: A new unit to support demonstrations, enhance visibility in urban areas and assist with search operations.
• Community Outreach Response and Engagement (CORE) Strategy: A coordinated safety strategy focused on Ottawa's ByWard Market and Rideau Street corridor, including initiatives like the Neighbourhood Operations Centre, hot spot policing, and a community advisory board to address evolving safety needs.
• Dedicated ByWard Market Patrol: A fully funded team to increase police presence and safety in the ByWard Market area.

The OPS 2025 Draft Budget emphasizes community safety, staffing stability, and strategic service delivery, prioritizing transparency and responsiveness to the needs of Ottawa’s diverse communities.

Financial Highlights

The Draft Gross Operating Budget aligns with the Board’s direction and totals $447.5 million. With the deduction of one-time revenue and in consideration of non-taxation revenue and recoveries, the Net Operating Budget for the Service is $388.7 million. This represents an increase of $16.3 million compared to the 2024 Budget. The assessment growth expected in 2025 is 1.5%, with the resulting net increase to the police taxation revenues of 2.9% after the pro-rata share of the payment in lieu of taxes is factored in. This equates to an approximate $20 increase on the tax bill of an average homeowner. It would bring the total for the Police Tax Rate to $717 for the average urban household.

The OPS continues to deliver on efficiencies and is a shrinking portion of the overall city budget. In 2019, the OPS Budget was 9.5% of the city budget but is now 8.9%. Federal and provincial funding are key to this budget, and we are finalizing agreements with the Provincial government on a three-year $48 million dollar funding agreement that is shared with our partners at the City, as well as a five-year $50 million dollar agreement with the Federal government.

Efficiencies

In 2025, the OPS will once again undertake an efficiency exercise. The Service has done this for many years and finds, on average, nearly $2M in efficiencies annually. In 2025, the OPS has set an efficiency target of $9.1 million in order to meet the tax levy direction received and includes reducing the pay as you go contributions to reserves by $7 million. This is affordable on a short-term basis due to commitments from the City on refinancing current capital projects and foregoing payment to the City for the South Facility land. 

This 2025 Draft Budget provides an overview of the resources and investments needed for the OPS to continue to evolve and adapt to the needs of our community. We remain committed to demonstrating transparency and accountability, fostering partnerships within Ottawa’s diverse communities, and building public trust. 

We want to hear from you…

The Board and the OPS want to hear from local residents and businesses about their thoughts on the 2025 Budget.

We encourage public delegations and questions from members of the public and Ottawa City Councillors at the November 22, 2024, Finance and Audit Committee meeting starting at 9:30 a.m. via Zoom at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84951021736.

The OPS 2025 Budget is scheduled for approval by the OPSB on November 25, 2024. It will later be reviewed and scheduled for approval by Ottawa City Council on December 11, 2024.

A complete copy of the OPS’ 2025 Draft Operating and Capital Budget can be reviewed by visiting ottawapolice.ca/2025.

You can also request a copy of the report by emailing Budget@otttawpolice.ca.

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Through the Community Safety Data portal data.ottawapolice.ca, members of the public can view, download, and interact with data released by the Ottawa Police Service.

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