By Carrie Ivardi, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

The board that governs Thunder Bay Police is looking to increase its budget by 2.9% next year, right in line with the three per cent increase cap requested by the city.

At their October meeting on Tuesday, the Thunder Bay Police Service Board moved to submit the board’s 2027 budget to City Council. The board’s budget is separate from the budget for the police service.

“So what we’ve done, the city has provided all boards (with) a mandate to stay within. We looked at that mandate, we are within that mandate, we’ve met it and we just looked at all of our various spending projects that we’re hoping to do this year,” TBPSB chair Karen Machado said.

The total operational expenses for 2027 is being set at $989,243, which is $28,813 above the 2026 operating budget — but less than the board has actually spent so far this year.

As of September, the board had spent $112,199 more than its total 2026 budget, driven entirely by one budget line.

At over half a million dollars, indemnified legal fees have cost more than 100 times the budgeted amount.

As reported previously by Newswatch, the fees — which are paid out when police service employees, not the board itself, are acquitted of a charge — added up to $586,515 so far this year, compared to the $50,000 budget.

The board has again budgeted $50,000 for legal indemnified fees in the 2027 budge.

The amount is reasonable and customary said Machado.

It’s no secret that there have been three major cases recently, “and those cost money,” said Machado.

“We’ve got another one coming this year, we believe. We don’t know when that will come,” she said, referring to the fact that the Sylvie Hauth case is still before the courts.

The boards own legal fees are still within their budget this year.

“The board has a legal fee line where the board has engaged with a lawyer to provide us legal advice and support us and working in the work that we need to do.

“And then the indemnification line, which is significant for this year, is related to it’s required both by law and in their collective agreements that if officers are charged with things and they’re found fully acquitted, so they’re cleared, the employer being the board pays the legal fees and there’s some numbers, some caps in there that relate to that.”

The three per cent budget increase the city is asking outside boards to stay within this year was set by administration rather than council this year because of the upcoming municipal election, Keri Greaves, city treasurer explained in an email to Newswatch.

In recent years, city administration sought a budget mandate from city council for those programs and services that are directly within the city’s control. Last year, Council also directed city administration to engage with local service partners and encourage them to limit budget increases in line with the target.

As this is an election year, Greaves wrote, council did not establish a specific budget mandate. Instead, city administration is working towards a levy increase consistent with the city’s approved long-range Financial Plan which contemplates a three per cent increase.

Similar to the prior year, they reached out to local service partners and asked them to make every effort to limit their 2027 budget increases in line with that three per cent target.

Source: TBNewswatch.com