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When asked about Schweitzer’s comments, a spokesman for Nenshi said his tweet stood as his only comment.

“We don’t want to get into the mud-slinging the justice minister wants to,” said Adam Noble-Johnson.

After a police commission meeting on Tuesday, Neufeld said the impacts of the provincial budget are going to be in the range of $13 million, which will have a “very significant impact.”

“The reality of it is we’re going to have to look at how we deliver services differently,” he told reporters.

Neufeld said “everything is on the table” in terms of potential cuts, except public safety.

“In terms of public safety, I mean, that’s our No. 1 job,” he said. “So what we’re actually talking about is if we have to reorganize and restructure in that way, we will be maintaining public safety. At the end of the day, we’ll be diverting resources from things like prevention and proactive activities and engagement and that sort of thing. That will be where the impacts are.”

Calgary Police Association president Les Kaminski said the service is already running thin.

“Ultimately, we’re running about as lean as you can run right now — every efficiency has been found,” said Kaminski. “What happens is it all falls back to the members.

“And ultimately who suffers is going to be the citizens because you can’t keep providing the same level of service if you don’t have the resources to do it. If (the money) is not coming … we have to alter the services that we provide.”

Kaminski said the budget shortfall could see the service stop new hires.

“We’re short people already, we can’t keep up to attrition,” he added. “Eventually, we’re going to end up with less and less front-line people … (and) less and less people in all positions eventually.”

With files from Janet French and Yolande Cole

zlaing@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @zjlaing