MOOSE JAW — Some areas of the Moose Jaw Police Service’s 2024 budget have been “tracking a little hot” recently, although other areas are below budget, the deputy police chief says.
“It’s a lean budget, but we anticipate that we’re tracking well up to this point, based on the end of October numbers,” Rick Johns said during the Board of Police Commissioners’ Dec. 11 meeting while discussing the operating budget.
Commissioner Jamey Logan inquired about a line item dealing with psychological services, which showed that the police service had spent $71,543 but did not budget for it.
The agency signed a contract this year with a psychologist to provide those services to members, although that opportunity arose during the year after the budget had been set, said Johns. This prompted the previous board to approve a motion to use those services.
Chiming in, Police Chief Rick Bourassa said that the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) signed an initial contract with a psychologist in the summer of 2023 to provide “navigation through the health-care system” for officers who required support and training.
“We expanded it slightly in … 2024, and that is included in the 2025 budget moving forward,” he continued.
“What we have seen over the past while is an increase in our people seeking out those supports, so now we have the systems in place to allow them to navigate that system properly and have good outcomes.”
Commissioner Dawn Luhning inquired about several line items, including legal and adjudication, computer software and employee benefits.
The legal/adjudication line had expenses of $146,241 on a $160,000 budget and the computer software line had expenses of $86,069 on a $78,000 budget and was 10.34-per-cent over budget. There were two employee-benefit line items: one dealt with salaries and had expenses of $1.6 million on a $1.8 million budget, while a second dealt with retirement gifts and had expenses of $14,347 on a $7,000 budget and was 104.96-per-cent over budget.
In response, police leadership said the legal/adjudication line was for the contract with in-house lawyer Destiny Diehl, the software line is a contract with Versaterm, which supplies a computer-aided dispatch and records management system, and employee benefits including pensions, CPP, EI, WCB and disability coverage — all of which the MJPS covers.
There have been other areas of the budget that experienced unanticipated increases this year, such as in the witness fees and special expenses line, said Johns. Among other things, this area includes fees to use conducted energy weapons (tasers), which the agency upgraded this year.
“The taser that we carry on the street now has licensing fees associated to that, so we are paying that … . It’s once a year (for licensing renewal),” he continued.
Meanwhile, the police spent $12,000 through the witness fees and special expenses line to create a new community survey to help it understand how it’s doing in the community and learn what residents think of the police service, Johns added. This survey aligned with the board’s strategic plan.
Commissioner Logan inquired further about provincial funding revenues, contractual revenues, and repair expenses.
The police service had received $119,972 out of $800,000 in provincial funding year-to-date, with the outstanding money to come in the new year, police leadership said. Furthermore, with contractual revenues budgeted at $250,000, the police — through the Commissionaires — manage parking for the city, but the finance director had not yet entered any money into that fund.
Also, repairs — $10,581 in expenses on a $30,000 budget — included maintenance on equipment like roadside screening devices, forensic identification gear and biological fridges for samples, leadership added.
The next police board meeting is Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025.
