THUNDER BAY -- City police will ask for a $1.2 million increase to its 2017 operating budget.
Thunder Bay city council approved a $39 million 2016 budget for the Thunder Bay Police Service, but the force was unable to work within that budget and are projecing a shortfall of nearly $815,000 for the year, which is about two per cent of its total budget.
During the Thunder Bay Police Services Board meeting Tuesday, Chief J.P. Levesque stated that they need more money to cover the increasing legal fees, which he believes will help alleviate the pressures it has felt over the past few years.
“Legal costs have been high for a number of years,” Levesque said.
“We’ve had a number of things going on with discipline issues, grievance procedures, human rights tribunals, and those are difficult to predict.”
Levesque said these are the conversations he’s had with the board and city finance that budgeting hasn’t been done realistically.
“We show a five-year negative variance to prove that, and it’s the same accounts every year that we are under funding,” Levesque said. “Working with city finance, we will beef it up the number of accounts.”
The board passed that motion; the next step requires city council's approval.
Money from a budget increase in 2017 is expected to go toward three of the bigger accounts including legal costs, overtime and the Information Technology division.
Levesque said he is confident the proposal will be accepted next month.
“I’ve been through it with city finance, and the city manager recognizes that we’ve underfunded ourselves over the last couple of years, and his direction was that we need to come in with a realistic budget,” he said.
Levesque added that he’s made the point over the last couple of years, and it’s frustrating going in year after year saying they are going to make it a variance.
“It’s not mismanagement, it’s underfunding, so I’m hopeful this year we get some items up to where they should be, and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that we will be OK come this time next year.”
