Official submissions

Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB Finance and Audit Committee members:

After getting a $31.5 million increase in funding in the 2026 budget, Ottawa Police ServiceOPS is forecasting a $20-25 million deficit in 2026. The Finance and Audit Committee documents for the August 7, 2026 meeting say that Ottawa Police ServiceOPS would be on track for $30 million deficit if it weren't for the $8.5 million in "efficiencies" that they had found. They're also saying that fuel costs are contributing to their deficit, yet last year, when the federal government dropped the price on pollution, OPS said they could recoup the savings. What happened?

From 2023 to 2026, the Ottawa Police ServiceOPS tax-supported budget received a total of $56.6 million in approved increases. On top of that, Ottawa Police ServiceOPS received a total of $20 million in "one-time" transfers from the City of Ottawa tax stabilization reserve (is four straight years of transfers still "one-time"?), and ran a total of $41.2 million of deficits, also paid out of City of Ottawa reserve funds.

During that same four-year period, Ottawa Police ServiceOPS' operating funding would already have totalled $1.4 billion without the $118 million in increases.

Why is Ottawa Police ServiceOPS allowed to run deficits year after year with no consequences? Are there no rules governing the management of public funds? Is anyone at Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB watching the cookie jar?

It seems that when Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB and City Council give Ottawa Police ServiceOPS a budget increase, they do so knowing full-well that Ottawa Police ServiceOPS overspent in the past and will likely do so again, leaving a deficit that will be covered from the reserve at the end of the year. That's a budget increase by another name. This means that the OPS budget increase for 2026 will end up being not 8.7%, as approved by Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB and City Council, but rather 15%. Including the 2025 deficit of $15.6 million, last year's increase was actually 9% rather than the approved 4.3%.

In the minutes of the June 18, 2026 OPSB Finance and Audit Committee meeting, where the City of Ottawa Auditor General provided her report on project management by Ottawa Police ServiceOPS, it was stated that the “Committee referenced the project that went from $600,000 to $2.2 million and asked if there was something the Board should have done. The Executive Director advised that in the current framework there is nothing that requires Board approval as long as the increases are absorbed within the approved overall budget” (emphasis added). Is the sole purpose of Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB then to increase the Ottawa Police ServiceOPS budget, without conducting any oversight of how that budget is spent?

That same project is now on track to reach a cost of $5.2 million, without Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB having ever approved an increase to its budget. A project that started at $600,000 will now run to at minimum $5.2 million.

Ottawa Police ServiceOPS ended 2021 with an $8.1 million deficit. As any competent management would do given this financial situation, they instituted a hiring freeze that year. Under a different Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB leadership, "[t]he 2022 Ottawa Police ServiceOPS Budget included $5.05M in permanent budget base reductions proposed by the Ottawa Police ServiceOPS, as well as an additional $2M brought forward by the Board, for a total of $7.05M (including the elimination of 20 permanent positions)" (Financial Status Report - Fourth Quarter 2022 presented to OPSB on March 27, 2023). Ottawa Police ServiceOPS still got a substantial budget increase in 2022, but that version of Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB at least called for a modest $2 million in cuts and the elimination of positions. Today's Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB wouldn't even dream of following their example. Instead, at the City Council budget meeting on December 10, 2025, where the 2026 Ottawa Police ServiceOPS budget passed with little to no critical analysis, councillor and Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB member Cathy Curry had this to say: “I actually contemplated voting against this police budget... because it's not high enough!”

While other municipal services are starved of funding and made to find "efficiencies" every year, Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB and City Council continue to shovel money into the bottomless pit that is the Ottawa Police ServiceOPS budget. As we head towards the municipal election and the 2027 budget season, COPOUT 613 will be watching to see if any elected officials are willing to exercise fiscal responsibility when it comes to Ottawa Police ServiceOPS.

Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB Board members:

Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB has decided – on its own initiative, not because of anything mandated by the Community Safety and Policing Act (CSPA) – to hold in camera sessions on various topics. One particular recurring agenda item is “Updates on Demonstrations and Events Management.” This is a broad topic that can cover everything from the Santa Claus parade to Canada Day to protests related to geopolitical events.

The right to protest is protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The residents of Ottawa have a right to know what the Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB policy on policing protests is. Section 43(4) of the Community Safety and Policing ActCSPA requires police service boards to "record without note or comment all resolutions, decisions and other proceedings at [a] meeting, whether it is open to the public or not." There may be some operational details that Ottawa Police ServiceOPS would want to keep secret, but that doesn't justify the full discussion, including Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB members' questions and views, being held in camera with no record of the proceedings available to the public.

At anti-genocide protests over the last 35 months, Ottawa Police ServiceOPS has often shown up with disproportionate numbers. It's not unusual for Ottawa Police ServiceOPS to come with anywhere between 25-35 officers, including 5-10 cruisers, sometimes bicycles, motorcycles and/or drones, to police somewhere between 150-250 people. That works out to approximately 1 cop for every 6-7 protesters. On two occasions in the Fall of 2024, Ontario Provincial PoliceOPP, with the support of the Ottawa Police ServiceOPS, deployed well over 200 cops, along with a drone, an officer with a GoPro camera, and a pre-positioned prisoner transportation vehicle, to police protests. Whose "safety" are they concerned with?

At the Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB Human Resources committee meeting on July 14, 2026, Chief Stubbs said, in relation to the board's “requirement” that Ottawa Police ServiceOPS reduce overtime by 10% (which he refers to as a “goal”): “Obviously some of the protests and events that we're going to that aren't recoverable, those are something that is a difficult level to manage. But, you know, for argument sake, so do we send 30 officers to that demo, or can we do it with 15? That's where we have to be strategic.”

When is Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB going to become transparent and open about what it's saying to Ottawa Police ServiceOPS about policing protests? When is Ottawa Police Service BoardOPSB going to hold the police accountable for the resources used to police protests?