The Moose Jaw Police Service’s year-end budget for 2022 has been completed with a surplus of $229,202.20. 

The surplus was a result of underspending on salaries and benefits due to unexpected vacancies. The salary surplus was offset by the higher cost of fuel, vehicle maintenance, police officer equipment and information technology maintenance. 

The police service is also carrying over a surplus of $170,275.01 from 2021. With a loss on investments of $4,341.52, the police’s total accumulated surplus sits at $395,135.69. 

The surplus will be turned over to the Moose Jaw City Council to decide what will be done with it. 

“I know historically that council does review all of this, and then the decision is that it goes into the surplus (reserve) and then the finance department through council moves that money into the deficits that might appear,” Chief Rick Bourassa told the Moose Jaw Board of Police Commissioners on Thursday. 

Bourassa added that the accumulated surplus will likely be expended in 2023 for backpay from the collective agreement with the Moose Jaw Police Association that was signed in 2022. 

“That will largely be taken up this year because we have settled a collective agreement with the police association and there will be backpay accruing through that time and some of that has been paid, if not all,” Bourassa said