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Calgary city council is looking at a budgetary balancing act when it comes to the Calgary Police Service’s need for a new firearms training facility, and how the service plans to pay for it.
Police chief Mark Neufeld and Calgary Police Commission chair Shawn Cornett spent Tuesday afternoon taking questions from city councillors, in their second day of deliberations for the 2025 budget.
In its submission for this year’s budget, the Calgary Police Commission is looking to use $13 million in unallocated funds from the Community Safety Investment Framework (CSIF) to cover cost overruns on a new firearms training facility.
CSIF, which was started in 2020, partners with community organizations to improve support and response for Calgarians in crisis, and prevent police interactions.
CPS puts $8 million into the CSIF program annually, which is matched by the City of Calgary.
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“At the end of the day, this isn’t about training versus the community,” Neufeld told reporters. “It’s not an option not to train our officers.”
Early estimates had the new firearms range priced at $10 million, but costs are now expected to be $23 million.
Cornett said using the unallocated CSIF funding became the last remaining option after months of looking for other funding sources in its budget that wouldn’t impact service delivery.
“We worked really hard in making this decision, it was not made lightly,” Cornett said.
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The use of CSIF money to pay for the firearms facility has raised concerns from Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott, who brought forward a motion last month to discuss the move during budget deliberations.
Walcott said he doesn’t disagree with the need to train officers, but wants to see other sources of funding used so the CSIF funds can be used for its original intent.
“This discussion is not one where anyone disagrees with each other, it’s a values based decision with where does the money come from?” Walcott said.
“The values-based decision that was made here is that CSIF funding, direct funding to community, is less important than the firing range; I just firmly disagree.”
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However, Neufeld said the current firearms training facility is aging and is creating bottlenecks in training and recruiting.
According to Neufeld, there are limits of four hours in the facility for officers due to high levels of lead and noise.
“The number one priority has to be to keep officers working,” Neufeld said. “If we can’t get officers to people in their time of need then nothing else matters.”
Neufeld said the police service remains committed to CSIF, and will find organizations for the unallocated funds if city council can find other options for the training facility.
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Calgary Fire Department
This year’s budget adjustment includes a $6.6 million increase to the Calgary Fire Department’s budget, split up with $4.7 million allocated in 2025 and the remaining $1.9 million in 2026.
The funding is meant to increase staffing the two remaining aerial trucks with 4-person crews, which is a continued effort over the last few years.
It follows a 2022 request to make permanent a $10-million investment in one-time funding to increase staffing with the $6.6 million representing the remainder of that request.
Calgary fire chief Steve Dongworth told city council the fire department has been struggling to assemble an effective response force within 11 minutes of a serious or escalating fire 90 per cent of the time.
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That response force consists of two fire engines, one aerial truck and a minimum of 12 firefighters for a serious fire.
Dongworth said such a response is taking close t0 14 minutes due to staffing levels, community growth and increased service demand.
“It’s important for us and I believe we will see significant improvement in assembling a first alarm or effective response force for both public safety as well as firefighter safety, by upstaffing all the aerial fleet to four members,” Dongworth said.
The funding will also go towards hiring a new community safety officer position to address fire safety education in “communities experiencing vulnerabilities,” as well as supports for front-line services like training, hazmat, and health and safety.
City council will also mull more funding for 19 new 911 dispatchers.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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