City departmental budget presentations continued last night, and first up was the RCMP.
Policing takes the largest percentage of the municipal budget, providing the majority of funding for 34 officers.
Manager of Police Services Gaylene Thorogood said the $150,000 needed for a new community policing office uptown, will come from the city’s policing reserve fund, so won’t affect the budget.
Sargeant Peter Dionne, the interim officer in charge said the force will become unionized in January, and considering members haven’t had a pay raise in 4 years, that could be coming in 2020.
Next up was Fire Chief Mike Owens, who told council that the fire boat has been inoperable for more than a year after both engines broke down.
“One of the engines went down on the boat. It was a bit of a period of time where they were trying to find a replacement for that engine. They eventually were able to secure a replacement for the engine,” he said. “They repowered the boat and brought it out for sea tests, and found that the other engine no longer worked. So, we still don’t have a boat. We have a rowboat.”
Owens said the city is in discussions with the Port Authority about the future of the shared fireboat service.
He said last year was the fire department’s busiest year ever with more than 1600 calls.
So far this year firefighters have responded to 1450 calls, which included 41 structure fires, 165 motor vehicle incidents and 770 medical first responder calls.
