Meeting Highlights - July 18, 2024

Grande Prairie Policing Service Budget

Finance Committee Chair Burnham presented the 2025 Grande Prairie Policing Services Budget to the Commission.  As required by the Municipal Government Act, all city areas must submit 4-year budget projections. These projections are used for planning purposes and assist the City in forecasting future financial impacts. The Finance Committee and Chief Lakusta will review the budget on an annual basis for the upcoming year and forward recommended adjustments to the Commission for approval.  For 2025, the Commission approved a $34.6 million dollar budget for policing services in the City of Grand Prairie.  This is a $1.07 million dollar decrease from what was budgeted for in 2024, most of which can be attributed to a shift in transition expenses to 2025. 

Grande Prairie Police Service Transition Update

Five experienced officers graduated on June 21st. Two officers are deployed to the Grande Prairie RCMP Detachment. One officer has been deployed to ALERT and two officers will remain with the transition team building up the new police service’s Crime Scenes Investigative Team, Tactical Response Team, and operational plans for critical incidents. Meetings are being scheduled with the Public Safety and Emergency Services Ministry to begin discussions on the development of the service’s Integrated Offender Management system.  The newly established Community Engagement Team in GPES is working well addressing the street engaged population. Additional officers will join the team in the next few months.  GPPS initiated a response to noise concerns in the city.  Two structured vehicle check points were established and resulted in numerous violations.

2024 – 2026 Strategic Plan Update

Policy and Governance Committee Chair Koch provided a 2024 2nd Quarter update on the Commission’s Strategic Plan initiatives.  All initiatives are currently on track or ahead of schedule.  The Committee continues their work through policy review and implementing policies referred to by the Commission.

CAPG Workshop

CAPG and the federal government are responding to calls for more guidance and training from Commissions in carrying out their roles and responsibilities.  A series of workshops are being held to build a national training framework for police oversight in Canada.  In October, a Commission member and the Executive Director will attend the Calgary workshops to increase learning and provide input on the training of Commission members.