Halton police seek 9.4% budget increase, 38 more officers for 2027

Halton Regional Police Service, which polices Burlington and the rest of Halton Region, is asking for $276,151,495 to run next year. That proposed net operating budget for 2027 is a 9.4% increase.

The ask is $23.7 million more than the approved 2026 budget, according to a budget report dated Thursday, Oct. 29, from Chief Stephen J. Tanner to the Halton Police Board, the civilian body that oversees the service. The report proposes 38 more officers and 17 more civilian staff.

Police say hiring the officers is "critical to keeping up with growth and providing adequate and effective policing in Halton Region," and that the new positions would address population growth and the increasing complexity of crime.

The service is still catching up to the strength it's already allowed. As of the third quarter of 2026 it was 16 sworn officers short of its authorized number, though it had added officers since the end of 2025. Counting civilians, it was 42.5 positions below its authorized level.

Burlington property owners pay for policing through the regional portion of their property taxes, where police are one of several costs. The report says that once the Region's projected assessment growth is counted, the increase works out to 7.4%. Assessment growth is the new homes and businesses added to the tax roll, which spread the cost over more properties.

Most of the new money would keep current operations running. The biggest piece covers added pay and benefit costs for staff the service already has, ahead of the new positions and rising costs for things like software subscriptions, computer maintenance, fuel and buildings.

The number could climb. The budget documents also lay out an option to speed up a real-time operations centre and buy pistol lights for frontline officers, which would raise the increase to 9.9%.

If approved, the cost goes into the Region's 2027 tax levy, the regional share of Burlington property tax bills.