The chair and vice-chair of the Belleville Police Services Board have sent a letter to the Solicitor General of Ontario asking for more funding regarding Court Security and Prisoner Transport (CSPT).
In their letter, Heather Smith and Councillor Barbara Enright-Miller says the board will be receiving $217,445 less than what it received in 2024.
This, despite expenses incurred through the CSPT program continue to go up.
They say the funding formula is no longer reasonable given the realities of providing these services to the community.
“In our particular case, we are navigating a 2025 Operations Budget, highlighted by an 86% expense item attributable to salaries, benefits and pension. A line item over which we have no discretion,” Smith and Enright-Miller say in their letter.
“Accordingly, we tabled the 2025 budget,s emphasizing restraint and savings over virtually all capital cost and variable expense items, wherever possible.”
You can read the full letter here.
