The Salvation Army
The Commission appreciated receiving a presentation from Captain Peter Kim regarding the important programs and services provided by The Salvation Army. Captain Kim provided an overview of Community and Family Services, the Food Bank, Emergency Disaster Services, Pathway of Hope, Camps, Christmas and Toy Hampers, Community Church with various ministries, and their collaboration with the Grande Prairie Friendship Centre on the Community Kitchen. Programs and services are continuously improved with the help of the Lived Experience Committee. Captain Kim indicated they went from providing 3,371 hampers in 2019 to 8,159 hampers in 2023 and serving 6,157 people annually through the Food Bank in 2019 to 12,760 individuals in 2023. The drastic increase in clients makes their Annual Food Drive and Christmas Kettle efforts even more important to addressing needs in the community.
Grande Prairie Police Service Transition Update
Twelve recruits commenced training on September 9th and are anticipated to graduate at the end of February. All training is being conducted locally in partnership with Lethbridge College, Northwestern Polytechnic, Eastlink Centre and various Peace Region partners. Recruitment for the 2nd recruit class has commenced and are slated to begin training by the middle of March. There are currently 164 applicants, 40 of whom have passed the APCAT stage of the process. A training program has been created, in partnership with the Eastlink Centre, to prepare a number of female candidates on the APREP portion of the process. The second experienced officers’ class will start on October 21st with members expected to be deployed by the end of the year. The Community Engagement Team (CET) continues to respond to social disorder in the community while talks with the RCMP to collaborate on a joint response continue.
2024 Policing Services 2nd Quarter Financial Update
Finance Committee Chair Burnham presented the 2024 Policing Services 2nd Quarter Financial Update to the Commission. Policing Services include the GPPS Police Transition, Commission, GPPS Tax Funded, Enforcement Services, Mobile Outreach, Policing Support Services and the RCMP Contract. Expenditures for Q2 are at 49% of what was budgeted for 2024. Projections for year-to-date spending indicate there will be a $1.3 million dollar savings. Most of these savings can be attributed to personnel vacancies and timing on transition recruitment and training.
Professional Development
Chair Wong, Vice-Chair Reiman and Commissioner O’Toole discussed their attendance at the Canadian Association of Police Governance conference in August. They were appreciative of the excellent sessions and time spent with Minister Ellis and Mayor Clayton discussing the transition. Commissioner Burnham provided a synopsis of his time at the Safety of our Cities conference he attended this week. He felt the sessions were extremely relevant and engaging, and provided a summary to the Executive Director for distribution.