THUNDER BAY - Several high-priority projects have pushed the Thunder Bay Police Service’s capital budget submissions higher than the allocated city funds, but police chief, Sylvie Hauth, said it’s a matter of working within what the Police Service needs and what it is mandated to do.
“For me it is really to prioritize where we are as a service, projecting ahead in terms of special projects, new legislation, and it’s really a big juggling act,” Hauth said.
“When I do an initial ask throughout the initial branches, we would probably be double of what the current envelope is in terms of wants and really it’s working with all the branches to say that everybody gets a little bit and what are the priorities and dwindling back to the envelope.”
Hauth presented her 2020 capital budget submissions to the Thunder Bay Police Services Board during a meeting on Tuesday. Submissions were due to the city in August and the project summary comes in at a total of $1,420,500. The envelope for the Thunder Bay Police Service is approximately $1.2 million.
The capital budget submissions include 15 projects for 2020, with vehicle replacement, body-worn cameras, training and equipment, and computer system maintenance and procurement being the most costly.
Vehicle replacement is expected to cost $375,400 in 2020 and Hauth said it is normal for this project to be a high-ticket item.
“That is our office, that is what we use on a daily basis,” she said. “We’ve had some issues in the past in the last few years where some vehicles were damaged as a result of accidents. But we were also cited by the Ministry of Labour and had to take certain vehicles off the road just because they were that old and not compliant or road worthy.”
Hauth added the Police Service is working to make sure the vehicle numbers stay high and vehicles are cycled through so there is an updated fleet on the road for officers on a daily basis.
The second largest project item is the implementation of body-worn cameras and in-car cameras at a cost of $344,700, which was one of the recommendations from the report released by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director.
“If you take that out of the budget, we would be close to the envelope,” Hauth said. “So for the next five years there is an ask of almost 350,000 to look at the five-year phase of that project to come to full fruition.”
Gun range requires upgrades
The Training equipment item, coming in at $186,500 is higher than normal because it includes nearly $25,000 for upgrades to a privately-owned gun range in Nolalu.
The Thunder Bay Police Service uses the gun range for training and for officers to requalify under the Police Services Act.
“The state of the range does not meet our current requirements,” Hauth said. “There are some difficulties in terms of drainage, issues with the configuration of the range itself, and it’s in desperate need of upgrades to meet our current standards for where we shoot to qualify.”
This year, the range was closed for two weeks in August due to heavy rains that made it unsafe to train.
“Losing two weeks for us in terms of training is really detrimental, it sets us back, and the work has to start so we can stay current and on top of our training schedule,” Hauth said.
The range requires $50,000 in upgrades and the Thunder Bay Police Service will share that cost with Nishnawbe Aski Police Service.
Thunder Bay Mayor and board member, Bill Mauro, expressed concerns regarding the gun range being privately owned and the city paying for upgrades.
“I think we understand that we need to be trained to meet Ministry standards,” he said. “That’s fine, that’s not the issue. But if we are going to invest money into a private facility and we are limited in where we have or what we have as options, then we need to make sure we have access to the facility.”
Hauth will return to the board with a report as to whether a long-term lease of five years can be made before the project item is approved.
Upgrades to comply with mandatory next generation 911 services will also cost the Police Service $50,000.
The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission has mandated a new next generation 911 service, which will allow people to text the emergency number.
Hauth said the Police Service needs to upgrade six stations. But there are still some things that remain uncertain, including whether or not the service will be available across the entire region or province.
“The city is responsible for ensuring 911 services are available in Thunder Bay,” Hauth said. “My argument is that this should be a city cost. I’ve been working for the last three years to ensure we keep putting money aside as a line item in terms of the capital budget so we will have enough money set aside in 2020 so we can start the next phase.”
In Canada, eight provinces have mandatory legislation in place that requires telephone companies to add a charge to phone bills to cover the costs of the next generation 911 upgrades.
Mauro said the issue came up during the Association of Municipalities of Ontario meeting earlier this year, but he is uncertain if Ontario will enact similar legislation.
“That’s what we’re faced with,” he said. “We are hoping that with other provinces, Ontario might see fit to go forward with mandatory legislation that would require them do to that, to fund the decision of the CRTC. But I don’t’ know if that will happen. I hope I’m wrong. But time will tell.”
