Today, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) submitted its 2026 operating budget request to the Toronto Police Service Board (TPSB). The request reflects continued investment in the multi-year hiring plan approved by the Board last year and supports safer communities and continuing modernization of the Service.

The 2026 budget request will be considered by the TPSB’s Budget Committee on December 8. Once approved, the budget will be presented to the City of Toronto Budget Committee for consideration as part of the City’s budget process in the new year.

Continuing to invest in progress

The multi-year hiring plan allows the Service to address core service delivery including frontline and investigative capacity. Just last week, the Service expanded the Neighbourhood Community Officer (NCO) program into four new Toronto neighbourhoods and the TTC. This includes eight NCOs dedicated to the TTC subway system, focused on the Yonge line, from Union to Eglinton, including prioritized patrols at Union and Bloor stations.

For 2026, the hiring plan means approximately 143 net new officers (after separations), allowing the Service to keep pace with growth and demand, and enhance core and priority services. In 2026, we are committed to continuing to expand the Neighbourhood Community Officer program into another four communities.

The Service is committed to fiscally responsible budgets, while also undertaking modernization to drive better core service delivery and trust. Investments are driving our progress, including:

• Improving response times to get to you faster:
  • Response times were reduced by over five minutes for priority one (involving violence or danger to lives) calls compared to this time last year.
  • Continuing the multi-year hiring plan, coupled with strategic, data-driven deployment and resourcing will help to continuously improve on this important service metric.
• Targeted investigations to get guns, drugs, and violent offenders off Toronto streets, such as:  
  • Project Castillo: the largest cocaine seizure in Toronto Police Service history - confiscating more than 835 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of approximately $83 million.
  • Project Poppie: 23 people arrested, including a youth who was charged with a homicide committed in April 2024, and 16 firearms seized after a shootout on Queen St. West.
  • Project Night Hawk: 10 people arrested, 203 charges laid, and four firearms seized in relation to five separate shootings, including a mass shooting at a pub.
• Road safety and traffic management to keep the city moving:
  • Traffic enforcement (ticketing) increased by 10 per cent so far this year.
  • Approximately 1.45 million parking tags issued, and 5,800 vehicles towed.
• Crime prevention and community safety and wellbeing:
  • Facilitation of over 1,100 referrals to partner organizations, which includes referrals to gang exit programs, FOCUS (Furthering Our Communities Uniting Services) and other community-based referrals.
  • FOCUS Toronto is a collaboration of community agencies led by a partnership between TPS, the City of Toronto, and United Way, who come together weekly to provide a focused, wrap-around, risk-mitigation approach to help vulnerable individuals and families who are at risk of potential harm and/or victimization.

2026 Budget Request

The Service has proposed a budget increase of $93.8 million or 7 per cent, which will be considered by the TPSB Budget Committee on December 8. Key aspects influencing this budget request are the impacts from collective bargaining, the cost of employee benefits and the continuation of the multi-year hiring plan – which will help get more officers in communities, responding to emergencies faster, and increasing our investigative capacity to close cases and giving closure to victims of crime and making Toronto safer.

2026 Budget materials can be found on the TPS website at: www.tps.ca/budget