Stratford Police Service presents police budget estimates for St. Marys in 2026

2026 policing budget estimated at nearly $1.6 million for St. Marys

By Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Town of St. Marys could pay nearly $1.6 million for police services next year according to early 2026 budget estimates presented to the St. Marys community policing advisory committee by the Stratford Police Service (SPS) last week.

Stratford police Chief Greg Skinner presented 2026 cost estimates and a proposed 10-year capital plan, both of which have been endorsed by the Stratford Police Services Board but not approved by Stratford council, to the advisory committee at its Nov. 12 meeting. The estimated budget for St. Marys’ portion of police services next year shows an increase from nearly $1.52 million this year to just over $1.55 million in 2026 – the highest police services budget for the town since 2017, when St. Marys paid just over $1.55 million for police services from the OPP before switching to SPS.

“(This budget) is a higher increase than we’ve experienced in the past in relation to policing, and I think the primary driver comes down to policing wages when you look at it line by line,” town CAO Brent Kittmer said, introducing the estimated budget to the committee.

“In addition, our capital plan is now actually extended out to 10 years, which is very helpful for us to start planning, and you’ll see some increases in there as well as the police have taken on a contract for body-worn cameras and Tasers, and so we have a cost-share portion of that at $95,000 per year for the next 10 years. So that’s now incorporated in the 10-year plan on top of regular cruiser replacements and things like that.”

According to Skinner, the police service’s wages and benefits account for roughly 88 per cent of the overall estimated budget. For St. Marys, policing personnel costs are expected to jump from just over $1.2 million this year to more than $1.4 million in 2026.

Skinner noted there may be some relief from that increase as he anticipates recouping some personnel costs from 2025 related to the SPS becoming a younger police service, with younger officers, many fresh out of school, stepping in to fill vacancies left behind after retirements and resignations of officers who were higher on the pay scale.

“As our police service gets younger, there’s a differential between a first-class constable’s pay and a probationary constable’s pay of about $40,000-$50,000,” Skinner said. “So, it has an impact on our budget when we are hiring a lot of young people who have to go incrementally through the increased class system before they get to first class, which does save some money on the salary side of the budget. You’ll see, probably, a reconciliation for 2025’s budget where there may be some increased money coming back to the Town of St. Marys … and 2026 should be the same … hopefully to reallocate to the police budget.”

From the police service’s 10-year capital plan, Skinner explained why the SPS has signed a nearly $7-million, 10-year contract for the purchase and any necessary replacement of body-worn cameras, Tasers and personal radios for police officers.

“It’s a significant cost, but what that allows us to do is constantly replace items as they get broken or, for some other reason, malfunction so that we will never be without equipment,” Skinner said.

“A good example of this is the Wildwood drowning that our officers went to where the officers immediately (deployed) to try to participate in the rescue efforts and a couple of our Tasers got damaged in the water in the process. So, that impacted our ability to have enough Tasers to be able to deploy to our front line. Now in this new world order, those Tasers would be replaced immediately under this contract so we would never have the downtime and the lag time to have those replaced because we have a contract to have a number (of them) on site on an ongoing basis.”

While the community policing advisory committee ultimately voted to recommend approval of the estimated 2026 SPS budget by St. Marys council, there is a process through which council can dispute the St. Marys portion of next year’s costs. The police service’s overall estimated 2026 budget won’t be considered approved until it is given the green light by Stratford council which, like St. Marys, can dispute the budget’s bottom line but cannot recommend specific changes.