The South Simcoe Police Service is expecting to return almost $52,000 to Bradford and Innisfil.
Chief John Van Dyke presented the annual capital expenditures report for 2023 during the police services board meeting at the South Division building in Bradford on Tuesday, March 19.
That report explained how the service handled just over $2 million in capital funding — including $1,007,849 provided by the municipalities in 2023, plus $994,142 in carry over from 2022.
In 2023, the service was able to spend $1,331,221, leaving a remaining balance of $670,770, from which $51,949 is expected to be returned to the municipalities and $618,820 is expected to be carried forward and earmarked for projects in 2024.
Some of those are projects on which the service planned to spend funds in 2023, but couldn’t due to industry delays. That includes for radio equipment on which the service was only able to spend $834 of $24,860, and larger radio infrastructure on which the service was able to spend $204,215 for two “huge projects,” which still left $73,372 unspent on a third.
“Last year they did two big radio projects, and the providers just couldn’t get to the other item,” the chief explained. “We have one big project that we’re planning on doing this year and another big project in 2025.”
In other instances, unspent funds are carried forward and earmarked for ongoing and reoccurring expenses, including $923 for weapons, $1,753 for speed measuring devices, $10,168 for intoxilyzers and $23,576 for uninterruptible power supply (UPS) battery backups to name a few.
That could be good news for those items in the service’s 2025 capital budget.
“I don’t anticipate next year that we will need to ask for much because we have quite a pot of money there,” the chief said.
A notable contributor to capital funding are grants provided by the province, and while figures for those grants weren’t captured in the report, it does show that of the $370,000 the service had allocated for part of the Next Generation 911 (NG911) project only $1,605 needed to be spent.
“Sometimes when we get a grant, like we did with NG911, we don’t have to spend the capital money, and then eventually when the projects close we can return some or all of the money,” the chief said. “We’re well into that project, but we’ve been using grant money.”
During his 2024 budget presentation to Bradford council in December, the chief estimated the NG911 grant to be about $750,000, but the total amount of the originally allocated $370,000 that can be returned to the municipalities can’t be determined until after the project is complete.
Another project underway is the service’s e-ticketing program, which will allow tickets to be directly submitted to court offices.
The chief explained that of the $37,450 budgeted in 2023, the service was able to spend $22,698 on Phase 1 of the project, which is now complete and plans to carry over the remaining $14,752 into 2024 to help with the costs of Phase 2.
“We’re waiting on a new Niche build, which is coming later this year before we’re able to pull the trigger on Phase 2 and then we’re at the mercy of PRIDE to do that,” the chief said.
Niche is the records management system used by the Police Regionalized Information Data Entry (PRIDE) partnership of which the service is a part, and as the chief understands, the new version of that system is expected sometime toward the end of the year.
This year has already thrown one curve ball into the service’s plans for capital spending.
The chief explained during his monthly update that “Ford just abruptly cancelled our 2024 hybrid order,” because “they’re retooling for 2025.”
“There’s no point in ordering four gas cruisers for the next three years. We’re better to try to wait six months and get the hybrid ones,” Van Dyke said. “They’re more environmentally friendly and there’s a savings in fuel efficiency for sure.”
The service is also still working toward finalizing a lease agreement with InnPower for nearly 560 square metres of office space, which will come with costs for renovations and furnishing.
The chief is hoping to have staff working out of that office beginning in 2025.
