COVID-19 has meant both savings and added spending for Thunder Bay Police.
Police Chief Sylvie Hauth told the Thunder Bay Police Services Board today that they had to make several staffing adjustments during the pandemic.
The police chief explained they had to be creative to continue to operate.
“We needed to ensure police cruisers that are used 24/7 were disinfected everyday, but we didn’t have the staff to do it. We ended up bringing over people from court to do it, because they weren’t required at court because of the closure. They were now working and doing a different job to ensure we were meeting the health and safety standards,” Hauth explained.
A report on the first part of the 2020 budget year shows the force is $50,000 over their $45 million budget.
The police service’s travel and training accounts provided some savings in the first half of the year because courses were cancelled and travel for training was also put on hold because of the coronavirus.
Revenue coming in from user fees and service charges were down by around $138,000 due to shortfalls in paid duty as a result of cancellations of all public gatherings.
$43,000 was spent in pandemic costs in addition to $23,000 in surgical masks purchased through the city. Hauth said as of June 11th they are at just over $181,000 in pandemic related costs.
Hauth will be reporting back to the board in September to highlight potential cost savings to offset the impacts of COVID-19.
