Council Support For Increased Police Budget

It appears Thunder Bay city council is in support of the budget presented by the Thunder Bay Police Service, which includes an increase of almost four million dollars.

In a presentation Acting Chief of Police Dan Taddeo laid out many factors the service faces, including the record number of murders the city experienced over the last year, and he completed the presentation by stating that the presented budget of just over $55 million, is the bare minimum of what is required.

Part of the services ask is an increase in officer compliment of 14, and 6.8 civilian staff, at a cost of $1 million.

“So the increase in the compliment, like I mentioned, is unfortunately reactive for the most part. It is a statement that there must be better support to deal with the root causes of crime and social issues.”

Taddeo also addressed questions from council on the status of the police headquarters located on Balmoral Street, which has due to space requirements had to move certain elements out of the building. Currently the service leases out space at a decommissioned federal fisheries building and houses its forensic identification unit out of a building operated by the Ontario Provincial Police, however Taddeo notes the OPP are looking to reclaim that space for their operations.

When questioned about the estimated cost of the proposed new police headquarters he noted a requirement for a second look.

“Significant inflationary pressures have happened since that estimate came,” Taddeo pointed out. “To be quite candid with you, you need a new estimate, this building needs a new estimate, I don’t believe the estimate that was provided is accurate in today’s dollars and I think that needs to be done.”

Council left the budget relatively unchanged and has since referred it to administration to find ways on how to increase police and social services funding through the province.

Which as Councillor Shelby Ch’ng pointed out “You will come back with advocacy options but it really doesn’t address the growing budget.”

City Manager Norm Gale agreed with Ch’ng’s assessment adding however that council does have options when receiving a budget from the PSB,