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Chief
Bordeleau introduced Director General D. Frazer, Mr. J. Letourneau, Chief
Financial Officer and Mr. W. Salem, Manager, Financial Planning, who presented
an overview of the 2017 Draft Budgets. (A copy of the presentation will be kept on file with the Board’s Executive
Director.)
Mr. Letourneau recognized the following individuals who
contributed significantly to putting the budget together: Mr. W. Salem, Ms.
S. Hamilton, Ms. V. McCallum, Mr. J. Sweet, Mr. O. Bell as well as the translators
and the print shop who worked diligently to pull the documents together. On
behalf of the Board, Chair El-Chantiry thanked everyone involved in the
process for their hard work.
Chair El-Chantiry announced that in order to provide an
opportunity for questions on the draft budget, the Ottawa Police Services
Board Finance and Audit Committee will be holding a meeting at noon on 17
November. As the budget affects the entire city of Ottawa, all councillors
have been invited to attend to ask questions of the Board, Police Chief and
staff. As Chair, his goal is to encourage transparency and give his Council
colleagues more opportunity to engage with the Chief. Councillors have also
been invited to attend and ask questions at the Board’s regular meeting on 28
November.
A discussion ensued and the following points of
clarification were made:
·
A
cautious, prudent and responsible approach has been adopted to grow the
police service by 75 officers over three years, while taking a hard look at
how they are doing business. By 2018, once the benefits of the Service
Initiative (SI) and other transformation projects are implemented, staff will
be in a better position to ascertain whether or not the Service needs to
continue growing. Calls for service are stable, if not declining somewhat,
however the complexity of crime is changing.
·
An
OPS inspector is in charge of working with the Ottawa 2017 team on the
celebrations for Canada’s 150th anniversary. A matrix is being
used to understand the security requirements for each of the estimated 1200
events scheduled. To date 10 major events have been identified as requiring
police presence, however, other events are being discussed that could possibly
have a significant impact if they occur. Staff will continue to assess the
situation as new events are brought to their attention.
·
Approximately
$1.5M has been identified to deal with these 10 major events. Any costs
associated with Canada 2017 events are over and above the operating budget
and external sources of revenue will be sought to fund them. Should the
external sources of revenue not be forthcoming then the budget will run a
deficit.
·
All
the events that require a police presence at an increased level are cost
recoverable. The threat landscape can change very quickly and the police
must be ready to adjust and adapt to the changing landscape that exists in
Canada and abroad.
Councillor K. Egli, Ward 9, Knoxdale-Merivale, on
behalf of community organizations in his ward, delivered three letters to the
Board regarding concerns about the upcoming changes to community policing.
That the Ottawa
Police Services Board receive and table the Ottawa Police Service 2017 Draft
Operating and Capital Budgets, to be considered at the Board meeting on 28
November 2016.
RECEIVED and TABLED
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