A new firearms training facility for the Calgary Police Service (CPS) is over budget, and the city’s police commission is seeking council’s permission to use unallocated money from a fund dedicated to community agencies to cover the shortfall.
The facility with 18 new shooting bays is now expected to cost $23 million; $13 million higher than originally anticipated.
To help cover that gap, the Calgary Police Commission is asking to use money from the Community Safety Investment Framework (CSIF), according to a letter sent to city council.
“Our Commission and the Service thoroughly reviewed the police budget to find other funding that could be used to fund the shortfall in the capital budget, but all remaining room in the budget has already been absorbed by other unanticipated costs and fine revenue shortfalls,” commission chair Shawn Cornett wrote.
In an interview with Global News, Cornett said the facility is at the end of its life cycle and there are concerns over space for officers and new recruits, as well as out-of-date HVAC systems and noise abatement measures.
“It doesn’t have the ventilation, it doesn’t have the all the requirements that are necessary to allow the trainers to be there safety for the length of time they need to be there training,” she said. “It’s occupational health and safety, and it’s not a good place for our officers to be.”
According to the commission’s letter, trainers can only be in the facility for four hours at a time “to prevent hearing damage and lead poisoning.”
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The letter also calls the facility a “bottleneck” in the training for new recruits as well as for officers who need to complete a firearms proficiency qualification twice each year.
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City council is being asked to allocate up to $13 million in CSIF money in upcoming budget deliberations in November, using $5 million in 2024, $4 million in 2025 and another $4 million in 2026 to pay for the increased budget for the shooting range.
“The city is in a really tough spot right now and no one wants taxes to go up,” Cornett said. “The request was that we as CPS would look to see if there was any places where we could find the additional funds because we didn’t want to ask for more.”
However, some councillors are raising concerns with the money coming from the CSIF.
“Commission and members of council on commission really struggled with using CSIF funds because those funds are to help those in need,” Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong said.
The program, 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.
“I understand the needs of training officers and I understand the needs of certification, but to take it out of the hands of community is a decision that I think commission should’ve pushed back on and shouldn’t have made,” Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott told Global News.
Walcott has crafted a motion to discuss the funding for the shooting range earlier than budget deliberations, while looking at city administration taking over the process allocating CSIF funding from CPS.
The Ward 8 representative said he’d prefer the funding to come from the city’s capital budget, and noted the move is bad optics and deserves more scrutiny.
“We have a fund that is not being utilized to support people in crisis to prevent people from dying in these interactions,” Walcott said. “So that money going towards a shooting range, I wouldn’t have supported this decision.”
The commission said the unallocated CSIF money was originally earmarked for a program called ReachUp YYC, a facility where people in crisis due to mental health, addictions or homelessness could go to be connected with services.
However, the letter noted the need for ReachUp YYC “changed” after the provincial government began a “similar initiative” through its Calgary Navigation Centre.
Cornett said the questions around the commission’s recommendation are warranted.
“We welcome any conversations about how we continue this critical work … and then how do we also make sure that we train our officers as well so that they are well placed to serve us on the streets,” Cornett told Global News.
Walcott’s motion is expected to be discussed at an executive committee meeting on Wednesday.
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