Police commission wants to use money for community agencies to pay for CPS gun range

The cost of a new firearms range for the Calgary Police Service is 130 per cent higher than expected.

And the Calgary Police Commission has a proposal to help cover the $13-million additional cost.

It wants city council to allow it to use unallocated money from the Community Safety Investment Framework (CSIF) — which aims to reduce violence on the street — to cover the unplanned cost overrun.

The new firearms range is needed because the current indoor facility, which was built 20 years ago, is beyond its lifecycle.

In a letter to city council, the police commission stated that firearms instructors and range supervisors can only spend four hours per day in the northeast facility to protect themselves against hearing damage and lead poisoning.

The commission calls the facility a bottleneck which hampers both recruit training and officers who need to prove their firearms proficiency twice a year.

Last year, it was estimated a new range with 18 shooting bays would cost $10 million. However, the commission now says the project will cost $23 million.

Not accurate

The chair of the Calgary Police Commission, Shawn Cornett, said the original cost estimate was not accurate and the reasons are being reviewed.

"Then inflation impacted it further. So we're very disappointed in that," said Cornett. "We are where we are."

To fill in the gap, she said the commission is asking city council to allow the project to use $13 million in unallocated money that CPS directed to the CSIF.

CPS puts $8 million annually into the fund, which provides money to dozens of community partners to support Calgarians in crisis.

That amount is matched each year by the City of Calgary.

She said the plan is to take $5 million in 2024 funds, $4 million in 2025 and $4 million in 2026 from CSIF to pay for the gun range.

Money available

The cash is unallocated because Cornett said funds were earmarked for a new partner called ReachUp YYC.

It was to be a new program to help people experiencing homelessness as well as mental health or addiction issues to connect to services they need.

However, Cornett said the need for the new agency changed when the provincial government created a new Calgary Navigation Centre to assist the same group of people.

She rejects any suggestion that this reallocation in any way reflects a wavering of support by the commission or CPS to CSIF's goals.

"We're committed to CSIF and what it stands for, which is partnering with other agencies so that we can meet the needs of the community from the best place possible," said Cornett. 

"We're absolutely committed to those principles."

She said city officials told the commission not to ask Calgarians for more money during a tough budgetary situation. So commission members looked at all options internally to deal with the funding gap for the gun range.

Cornett said this was the only option that worked and it was contentious even among commission members.

"This was a very difficult decision," she said.

Bad optics

The commission's reallocation proposal is not being welcomed by some city councillors.

Coun. Courtney Walcott said no information has been provided as to why the cost estimate for the gun range which was given to council just last year so badly underestimated the actual cost of the new building.

"A choice was made that the shooting range was more important than funding crisis response teams at the level that was intended four years ago," said Walcott.

"That is a devastating choice."

He suggested that, given city council has already approved the new range, the commission should have just asked for an additional $13 million in one-time funds to complete the capital project.

Walcott said the optics of this proposal aren't good, pointing out that most social programs are either underfunded or oversubscribed. He'd prefer the unallocated CSIF funds go to other agencies.

"You can't tell me that a fund that was built to reduce lethal use of force is being redirected to make sure that they're better trained at their use of lethal force."

Carra calls it galling

Another councillor agrees that this proposal might be in for a rough ride when it comes up during November's debate on adjustments to the 2025 civic budget.

Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said, to Calgarians, it will look like the police commission and CPS are turning their backs on the problems that CSIF was created to solve.

He suggested it's like the police are saying: "This fund is unnecessary now and so we're going to put it into something that is almost antithetical to the use of the fund." 

Carra called that "galling" and predicted it will provoke a difficult conversation in the budget debate.

The commission is not seeking any additional base funding for CPS for 2025.