The Moose Jaw Board of Police Commissioners recently passed the Moose Jaw Police Service’s 2025 operating and capital budgets.
The police are expecting $16 million in expenditures in 2025, an increase of $1.9 million from 2024, or a 13.47 per cent increase.
For revenue, the police are expecting a significant increase. They are budgeting $2.9 million, or a 52.14 per cent increase from 2024. The majority of the increase in revenues is for provincially-funded officer positions.
“In that total, that’s eight additional positions that the municipality is not having to fund. So yeah, when you see the increase in revenue, that’s there. There are a couple of other smaller areas where there’s some revenue coming in,” said Chief Rick Bourassa.
Typically, the police budget takes up between 22 to 23 per cent of the City of Moose Jaw operating budget.
“The costs are going through the roof, and it is true that the cost of policing is getting more and more expensive with the investments in technology and things of that nature. But, it is still maintaining that trend,” said Deputy Chief Rick Johns.
One of the key initiatives in the operations budget is licensing for in-car reporting and Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD). Funds were established in 2024 to bring in-car reporting and CAD to keep officers in the community rather than at the police station writing up reports.
The police are also looking to fund upgrades in cells for prisoner safety. This includes the gradual installation of biometric sensors into cells to monitor prisoners and alert staff of any emergencies.
“That is one of our biggest liabilities within the Moose Jaw Police Service’s cells. We’re bringing people into our cells that are high risk, and we’re looking at introducing and phasing in biometric sensors into our cells,” said Johns.
“This will allow guards and officers in the station to be able to make sure people aren’t going into any sort of medical crisis or medical event in our cells.”
The police are also looking into upgrading technology in the communications centre. This includes upgrading the answering system to allow the communications centre to receive texts, pictures, and possibly GPS location.
They will also move into Phase 1 for body-worn cameras. This will involve getting the infrastructure in place for the audio and visual capabilities and evidence management.
For operational strategies and enhancements, the Moose Jaw Police Service is partnering with the RCMP to form an eight-officer integrated Crime Reduction Team to address guns, gangs, and drugs.
The MJPS’s budget will continue to address public safety, especially around parks, public spaces, and the downtown core.
“We’ve introduced our frontline members to some enhanced foot patrol and bicycle patrols in our public spaces and parks,” said Johns.
“There’s been a considerable presence in those areas, and we’re going to continue to do that as well as enhance those with the introduction of personnel to the organization and things such as e-bikes and more robust patrols into expanded areas of the downtown area and the city.”
With the addition of provincially-funded new police officer positions, the MJPS is increasing its budget to attract new officers to fill those vacancies.
“We have a significant number of vacancies that we anticipate having to fill in the future. We’ve developed a strategy around recruiting not only locally but around the province to try and find candidates that will be suitable to join our organization,” explained Johns.
The police will be introducing a full-time professional standards officer in 2025. Previously, this was done by a current officer who wore “several hats.”
This position would ensure officers are meeting professional standards and that investigations are timely and thorough.
“The professional standards piece will be largely preventative. We won’t have it for next year; it will be in the budget following, an early warning system that’s been developed and is being used in a number of police services across Canada, and then attaching to that is quality assurance,” Bourassa added.
Finally, the MJPS plans to enhance the community and victim services response to provide support for victims of crime in the community.
Commissioner and board chair Crystal Froese expressed concern about $231,800 budgeted for 911 services that used to be covered by cell phone fees. She said the chief has been working with the provincial government to get clarification if the police department needs to pay that amount.
“There’s still time for them to take that back because this budget has to be ratified at city council. So, there’s still an opportunity for them to allow us and across the province to actually continue to pay for this service because that is a significant amount of money in our budget that we could allocate for more important things,” said a frustrated Froese.
Bourassa said the 911 charges equate to over 3,000 police officer hours or two per cent of the operating budget.
Commissioner Clive Tolley voted to pass the budget in order to send it to city council but felt the increase was quite high.
“I don’t think I’m pleased with the percentage increase. I think it’s going to be too high, but we’ll have a new city council that will be looking at this, along with city administration, and they can make those decisions whether they accept this budget from our police commission or not,” Tolley said.
MJPS capital budget
The Moose Jaw Police Service also presented its five-year capital budget to the Board of Police Commissioners.
Through a formula adopted by the board, the 2025 capital budget has a base funding of $85,000 and increases by $5,000 each year through to 2029. The police’s overall ask for 2025 for capital projects is $344,000.
The budget includes a $50,000 contribution for the upcoming replacement of the police department elevator as it is reaching the end of its life.
There is $10,000 earmarked for firearms range maintenance. Johns said officers are now trained to use carbine rifles, which are too powerful for the police’s indoor range.
“We’ve entered into an agreement with the RM for some space outside of town and with that agreement will come some building of berms and some safety features that will allow us to use that range more safely out of town,” Johns said.
A major capital expense is $149,000 for renovations to the second floor of the police department.
Since the new classroom opened up on the first floor, the former classroom on the second floor has been sitting empty. The police want to renovate that area to create more office space.
“We really do need some additional workspace, particularly for the Crime Reduction Team folks, but also some additional office space as we have people that are working in spaces they shouldn’t be working in. Plus, we also need to create an appropriate workspace for our Internet Child Exploitation investigators,” explained Bourassa.
The police budgeted $40,000 for security upgrades to the detention area. Johns said this is creating better sightlines for the cells and capital upgrades to prepare for the biometric sensors.
There is $10,000 for sidewalk replacement just outside the police station and $85,000 for unanticipated infrastructure demands as the police department building is nearly 40 years old.
The Board of Police Commissioners unanimously approved both budgets.
The next step is to get approval from city council during budget deliberation. The Board of Police Commissioners operates as an independent body from city council. While council can send the budget back to the board, it cannot dictate how the funds are spent.