The Port Moody Police Department (PMPD) is looking for a budget increase of almost 10 per cent for 2025.
In a report to be presented to council’s finance committee today, Oct. 25, the Port Moody Police Board that administers the department said the provisional operating budget for the coming year is $16,339,722, a 9.8 per cent increase from the 2024 budget.
The chair of the police board is Mayor Meghan Lahti.
Almost a third of the boost, $464,225, is attributed to cost of living increases to wages and benefits for the department’s unionized members.
The provisional budget also anticipates a $122,886 increase in dispatch fees the PMPD pays to ECOMM as well as an additional $46,605 in the radio and user equipment levy for the regional 9-1-1 service.
The department is seeking $119,539 to fund a new IT position to bolster and maintain its technology needs. As well, ongoing operational costs for its body-worn camera project will cost another $120,000.
The second phase of a training officer position that was approved last year, to be phased in over two years, will cost $101,508.
According to Port Moody’s deputy chief financial officer Tyson Ganske, and corporate business analyst Jack Mai, the requested increase to the PMPD's budget would be responsible for two per cent of the city’s overall budget boost of 11.85 per cent.
Ganske and Mai said that would be offset by a one per cent increase in growth revenues, bringing the provisional increase to 10.85 per cent. That equates to an additional $339 in property taxes for the average single-family home in Port Moody.
City department heads began their budget pitches to the finance committee last Friday, Oct. 18, with the police and library board presentations scheduled for today.
They will then consider the committee’s recommendations to craft a revised draft budget before Port Moody residents are given the opportunity to provide feedback through the city’s online engagement portal. Results of that process will presented to council on Dec. 3.
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