The Thunder Bay Police Services Board passed a resolution Tuesday to include a slight increase in the police force’s operating budget for 2012.
City Police chief J.P. Levesque told the board Tuesday morning that the budget in December was set around $34 million. That figure was a four per cent increase from last year, but it had to be increased to 4.3 per cent because of the rate increases for the Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance.
“We had to adjust our budget to represent those changes, so it has gone up by .3 of a percentage point,” said Levesque.
A large part of the increase is due to negotiated wage increases within the Thunder Bay Police Services, which was brought to the board’s attention in December when the budget was first presented to the board.
Mayor Keith Hobbs voted against the proposed budget at that time.
Calling the recent proposed budget excessive, Hobbs on Tuesday again voted against the increase.
The budget will be presented to council for approval in February and Levesque said most city budgets will have to be adjusted because of the CPP and EI rate increases.
In other police board news, local resident Henry Wojak made a verbal presentation to the board about his concerns with the deer management strategy presented to council in November of last year, specifically outlining his concerns about reducing speeds in areas with high deer population.
He referred to a two-year-old news article where a Ministry of Natural Resources conservation officer said the way to reduce deer-related vehicle collisions was for drivers to maintain the speed limit.
“I’m not saying reduce the speed, but at least enforce the speed limits in those areas,” said Wojak. “They can put up (speed) advisories.”
“Hopefully the board will ask for a report and maybe can present it to council to show them an alternative to help with the deer-vehicle collisions,” he added.
Levesque said Wojak’s ideas about reducing speeds are not unheard of and the police will be looking for direction from council on the issue.
“If they are seeking further input, we’ll start looking at our numbers and give them any help they need to make their decision,” he said.
