Ongoing budgetary and resource pressures were a main point of discussion at Wednesday’s Board of Police Commissioners Meeting.  

Police Chief Rick Bourassa said he continues to work with the Ministry of Corrections, Policing, and Public Safety and the Minister on these issues, which he said are provincial responsibilities. 

A current issue he pointed to was municipal police services taking on the responsibility of guarding individuals in detention for court, which Bourassa said should be a responsibility for deputy sheriffs and the province. 

He said MJPS had to change their system for both budgetary and security reasons. “We now have at least one police officer – rather than providing policing in the community – sitting in provincial court every day, managing the people in custody.” 

“We have removed some budgetary pressures, but we have increased some resourcing pressures by having police officers having to do that.” 

With a full-time position being required for this, that is 2080 hours of local police time, equal to approximately $142,000 annually. 

Bourassa said the most recent provincial budget did not allocate any funding for covering these costs. 

Another issue Bourassa pointed to is MJPS being responsible for conducting prosecutions of provincial statute offences. He said that costs to manage this have been increasing, particularly with the increase in Automated Speed Enforcement offences.  

“A police officer will be engaged in those prosecutions, which is, in principle incorrect, but in practice, we have no other mechanism for dealing with that right now.”  

He said that 1040 police hours are needed for public prosecutions - around $72,000 per year.  

A potential future cost for MJPS is costs for 911, which are currently funded through monthly surcharges on phone bills. Bourassa said they got notification last year that costs are expected to transfer to municipal police forces as the move is made to a federally mandated next generation system.  

“Some of those costs for 911 that we have never had to pay before will now be transferred to us, to have our systems mesh with the 911 system,” explained Bourassa.  

For the 2025 budget, this is estimated to cost $231,000. Bourassa pointed to this cost being equivalent to over 3000 policing hours.  

“I am of the position that this has never been something that is funded by police services. This has always been funded through other means and is a provincial responsibility.” 

After the initial 2025 cost, yearly estimates would be $166,800 for the local police service, with increases for inflation.  

"None of that is written in stone, but that was the first estimate that we were given when we were notified with the upgrades to the provincial 911 system that some of those costs would be moved to police services."

He said that they are not considering outsourcing 911 dispatching to Prince Albert, which had been an option suggested costing around $1 million yearly.  

“We are not keen on that proposal whatsoever. Our communications officers know our community well; they also provide other services for us, in terms of [that] they take reports and do those sorts of things.”