The emergency response effort to Tuesday’s suspicious packages incident cost almost $67,000, according to calculations by the Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) and fire department.
More than 60 emergency personnel responded after suspicious packages with an unknown substance were delivered to five locations in Saskatoon. The substances were eventually tested and deemed harmless.
READ MORE: No charges for two people arrested in Saskatoon suspicious package cases
According to a breakdown by Saskatoon Deputy Fire Chief Andy Kotelmach, the total response effort cost the fire department and the city’s Emergency Measures Organization $53,323.96. Almost $39,500 went toward the apparatus cost, while roughly $13,800 was spent on overtime to backfill stations vacated for the incident.
SPS spokesperson Kelsie Fraser said the force estimates the response cost them just over $13,500, with $8,100 going toward overtime and call-out costs. She said the bill could have been larger if the incident didn’t occur during the mid afternoon.
“This happened kind of right in the middle of the shift, so there were a number of regular hours that those officers would have been on the street anyway,” Fraser said in an interview Friday.
“We wouldn’t do anything differently knowing the cost now, nor would we base our responses on cost moving forward.”
The services’ efforts led to charges against 31-year-old Alexa Emerson. She is expected to appear in court next Tuesday.
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