A Moose Jaw Board of Police Commissioners meeting on Thursday, December 7th saw some budgetary changes being made. 

In their original operating budget submission to Council, the board submitted a request of $445,000 for Computer-Assisted Dispatch and In-Car Reporting technology.  

During the December 7th meeting, the board made an amendment, removing that amount from their operating budget request, and are instead taking this $445,000 from existing funds. 

“We were informed not that long ago that there is a little bit of money in reserve. There’s basically $450,514 in a major equipment control account that is unencumbered,” said Commissioner Doug Blanc. 

“We’ve come to the conclusion that we could use that surplus and take $445,000 out of our budget.” 

With this change, the new net operating budget request is $12,245,903, making for an increase of 6.40 per cent, rather than the original 10.26 per cent.  

The meeting also saw a change to the capital budget submission to Council. The original capital budget submission included base funding of $80,000 for 2024, increasing by $5000 annually through 2028. A further $1 million was also being requested, starting in 2025, with the intent of allocating the funds for a new police building in the future.  

"At the City’s budget discussions, Director of Finance, Mr. Acker, suggested that in terms of planning for new facilities for the police department, that is a City responsibility, and that that money should be put into the City’s account and their planning,” said Commissioner Clive Tolley. 

“In terms of speaking to that, the idea was, as a board, let the community and let the City know that we’re going to have to start putting money away for a new building. I think everybody understands that now, but it seems like the City’s direction is that that’s better served by the City planning for that new building, rather than our police commission.” 

The board voted to remove the $1 million request from their 2025 capital budget, sticking with $80,000 in base funding for 2024 with yearly increases of $5000. 

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