A call to have the province halt increased police spending has prompted the city’s police services board to examine its priorities.
Thunder Bay Police Services Board Chair Joe Virdiramo attended a two-day conference for the Ontario Association of Police Services Boards on March 6 to discuss the issues around increased police costs. Thunder Bay’s police budget rose by 4.3 per cent from last year primarily because of salary negations.
But Thunder Bay wasn’t the only city that saw its policing costs rise. Similar increases impacted police services across Ontario.
These increases prompted the OAPSB to request the province to step in and put a stop to the rising costs as some policing costs have gone up by as much as seven per cent a year.
The organization suggested the government look into centralized police bargaining for municipalities as well as eliminating the use of police officers for non-core tasks.
Virdiramo said it was an enlightening conference and that he personally learned a few things on what the police board should be looking at.
“Costs go up and there are certain standards that we have to meet, certain things we have to do through legislation,” Virdiramo said.
“You take a look at wages across the province you can compare police wages to other professional wages and I think you`ll find they aren’t that far off. Policing is a difficult task and when people say ‘we want a police officer on almost every corner’, well we can’t do that.
“We have to decide what our priorities are and our priorities are making sure our community is safe.”
One of the main issues was discussing core police functions. Virdiramo said they will be looking at all these and more when the board discusses the police business plan next month.
“I learned a few things on how we can deal with things in a different way to be cognizant to the fact money it limited,” he said. “However, we need to meet the needs of the community.”
