Calgary police, fire make pitches to city council during mid-cycle budget talks

The Calgary Police Commission is proposing to use money earmarked for community crisis and mental-health groups to fund a new firearms range, unless the city offers up more in its budget.

The police service says its training range is two decades old and needs replacing because it's unsafe and is impacting its recruitment and hiring of new officers.

"We're not building the Taj Mahal here. It's a training facility with some classrooms and then 16 bays for the range," said Chief Mark Neufeld.

"Right now, we're set up for about 80 recruits a year, and we're hiring at 135 (recruits). So as the city continues to grow and as the service continues to grow with it, you can see the math problem that we have."

The cost for a new firearms range has increased from $10 million to $23 million due to inflation and supply chain issues.

The need for a new facility doesn't seem to be a point of contention at city hall, but how to pay for it is.

The police commission suggested using unspent money from the Community Safety Investment Framework, a fund meant to go to community partners that focus on mental health, crisis calls and street safety.

If that can't be used, the city will need to find money in its $6-billion budget for next year.

"It remains to be seen how we address this dual need that they have. But I can tell you that Calgarians are very concerned about public safety," said Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

Council is continuing its discussions about proposed changes to the budget, which could see a combined property tax increase of 3.6 per cent next year.

On Tuesday, the Calgary Fire Department also made its request for an additional $4.7 million next year.

The department wants to use most of that money to increase the number of crew members on its aerial trucks to improve responses to high-rise fires, especially in the downtown core.

"Council approved a target a number of years ago of us being able to assemble a first alarm or an effective response force within 11 minutes, 90 per cent of the time. That's degraded over the last few years, since I've been chief, to where we're almost at 14 minutes to assemble that first alarm at the moment," said Chief Steve Dongworth.

Budget adjustment decisions won't be made until after councillors pitch their ideas to try to lower spending.

Some members of council have indicated they plan to table at least 20 amendments in an effort to lower the proposed property tax increase currently recommended by administration.