The North Bay Police Services Board has passed the 2018 operating budget and it calls for a 3.63 % increase.

Chief Shawn Devine says they’ve come down from a previous estimate of over eight per cent, by reducing overtime by $200,000, making cuts to the WSIB surcharge and the impact of the hiring of new recruits, but that’s not all.

“We came forward, through dispatching work we do with the North Bay Fire Department, and as a result we were able to reduce the budget request to the 3.6 per cent,” he says.

Devine says the eight per cent figure mentioned at a city budget meeting last month was never passed by the board and was just an estimate of where they were in the process.

“At that November meeting it was never voted on by the Police Services Board but the city, doing their budgeting, wanted to know what we were looking at. There was a number presented, but again that was not a number that was ratified by the Police Services Board,” He says.

Devine cautions though the year isn’t over.

(file photo)

Filed under: North Bay Police Service