SYDNEY, N.S. — The Cape Breton Regional Police Service is asking the municipality for a $1.76 million increase in its 2024-2025 operating budget.
According to Chief Robert Walsh, who appeared Wednesday at a Cape Breton Regional Municipality board of police commissioners' meeting, the force is “forecasting $1.1 million under budget for 2023-24 and we are requesting $1.7 million increase for 2024-2025, primarily for contractually negotiated wages, salaries and benefits.”
Last year’s approved budget totalled $30,500,486, and the regional police is requesting a $32,260,259 budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
The increase request, amounting to around $1.76 million, or 5.77 per cent, comes on the heels of the police service settling on a new collective bargaining agreement at the end of last year. The new contract will see an initial wage adjustment this year of 3.75 per cent for all members with four or more years of service, then increases of four per cent on Jan. 1 of 2024 and 2025, then 3.5 per cent for Jan. 1 of 2026 and 2027, respectively.
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As well, the police service is also carrying $170,000 over budget for building maintenance at its Grand Lake Road headquarters, largely due to flooding that occurred in mid-July 2023.
“There were two variables related to building repairs,” Walsh said. “One was repairs required to the central headquarters’ roof, delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and we weren’t able to get contractors up in time to do the work.
“Additionally, we did have a flood internally that resulted in a lot of damage. A large amount of that was covered by insurance but there were still additional costs that resulted from it.”
No additional cash needed
However, Walsh noted that the proposed police budget, which still must be formally approved by CBRM council, is not seeking any additional cash to the operational component of its financial outlook for the coming fiscal year.
“We’ve tried to find efficiencies within our existing operational budget and moved monies between general ledger accounts, where we’ve identified some efficiencies going forward,” Walsh said after Monday’s meeting.
Within its budget, Walsh said the police service reduced the annual budgets from the following ledger items:
- Travels/conferences (from $70,000 to $60,000);
- Telephone/fax services (from $210,000 to $200,000);
- Contracts/agreements (from $30,000 to $20,000);
- Grants/subgrants to organizations (from $50,000 to $25,000);
- Maintenance equipment (from $7,570 to $6,070);
- Vehicle/equipment towing (from $5,000 to $4,000);
- Postage and courier service (from $5,000 to $4,000);
- Meeting and expenses (from $11,500 to $10,000);
- Promotion (from $11,000 to $10,000).
Online crime reporting portal
Another area in which the police service hopes to find additional savings comes in the form of a new portal for online crime reporting available for non-emergencies.
“We did an upgrade of our website — and this was part of it — and it was covered under our CBRM corporate communications and technology department. “It’s really cost-effective,” said Walsh, adding that he could not immediately provide the actual cost of setting up the site.
As Desiree Magnus, the police service’s communications and public relations adviser, explained to the board of police commissioners, the online portal allows not only officers to input crime reports but also a way for the public to report a non-emergency crime and “give better access to our police officers in terms of the 24/7 reporting process.”
“We know that people want to report things in different ways, that they use technology for just about any kind of communication. So we are providing this as another point of access for citizens to report matters to police.”
At the moment, Magnus said it’s not meant to replace phoning in a report to police but to “provide another option” to report on whether “you’ve lost something; someone has stolen something from you; someone has damaged your property, including your car (not collisions); or someone has broken into your car.” The police website, however, does mention that online reporting is not monitored 24/7.
“If it’s an incident in progress, if there’s a person identifiable as a suspect, that’s something you should still be calling police for,” Magnus said.
'Unused wages'
Meanwhile, Walsh said the $1.1 million in savings from the previous year’s budget also largely comes from “unused wages for officers who are out on (workers’ compensation) and (long-term disability) whose salaries are paid for by insurance,” the police chief said.
“It is important to note that we budget in anticipation of our full complement of staff in the event that these officers all return to work or that we are able to hire to replace them,” added Walsh, noting that at this time, a total of 18 officers are off on leave due to WCB or LTD.
“That's why these wage projections include all of that salary and why we come in under what projected. So while our overtime is up slightly, which is to be expected because we continue to operate the vacancies in officers, jailers and among our management team, it is offset by these unused wages and keeps us under budget.”
Ian Nathanson is a multimedia journalist at the Cape Breton Post. Follow him on Twitter at @CBPost_Ian
