The Toronto police board is taking a hard line against rising salaries ahead of new contract talks, issuing a statement urging against escalating costs – a move that the head of the police union slammed as a political play.

The police board and union will begin negotiations before the current contract expires at the end of the year. But the police board – a civilian group that oversees the police budget – pre-empted these discussions on Thursday by warning against rising policing costs, and citing salaries as making up 89 per cent of the force's nearly $1-billion budget.

"… Police have received wage increases over the last number of years which have not only exceeded the rate of inflation, but have far exceeded the increases received by their municipal and private sector colleagues," the statement read. "We believe there needs to be a break to this cycle of ever escalating costs of policing."

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Toronto Police Association head Mike McCormack, whose organization represents about 8,300 members of the force, slammed board chair Alok Mukherjee.

"It looks that Mukherjee's grandstanding, and it's to the detriment of the city, the police service, and the public," Mr. McCormack said in an interview. "… He's doing it in public without having an opportunity to sit down at the bargaining table and have discussions."

Mr. McCormack said in a statement that the board's reliance on "tired old bargaining myths such as a broken arbitration system, leap-frogging, and highest-paid police service status smacks of desperation."

In an e-mail, Mr. Mukherjee denied the accusation of grandstanding, and said the statement was issued for the sake of accountability.

"We owe it to Toronto to be open and transparent," he said. He also denied bargaining in public. "I have not disclosed any specific details of the issues we intend to raise, proposals we plan to to discuss or logistics related to bargaining."

The back-and-forth comes at a time of major upheaval for the Toronto Police Service. Over the next months, the seven-person police board will change. Three councillors – Mike Del Grande, Michael Thompson and Frances Nunziata – officially end their terms next month. Andy Pringle's term on the council-appointed seat also ends later this month. Mr. Mukherjee's term continues until 2016, but his position as chair will be subject to a vote in January.

It is the second time in recent months Mr. McCormack has accused Mr. Mukherjee of taking political advantage of a vacuum in leadership brought about because the board decided in August not to renew Chief Bill Blair's contract. In August, Mr. McCormack accused Mr. Mukherjee of having "an agenda" over comments he made about a need for "fundamental transformation" in the force.

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The board is searching for a replacement for Chief Blair.

Mr. McCormack accused Mr. Mukherjee of making a "political play."

"I think there's changes in government, and Mukherjee's been around for too many years," he said.

Next week, the board will consider a request from Chief Blair for a 0-per-cent budget increase for 2015 – including a reduction of 43 officers from the force.

Editor's note: A request for a zero-per-cent budget increase in 2015 is being made by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair. An earlier version of this story said the proposal came from the police board's chairman.