CALGARY—City council was behind closed doors discussing the city’s $60-million budget cut package well into the evening Tuesday, but councillors heard about how a planned $7-million reduction will affect the Calgary Police Service.

Calgary Police Commission chair Brian Thiessen said CPS can bear the cuts without impacts to the front line, but training and equipment will be reduced, the auxiliary cadet program will be permanently cancelled and the force will see a reduced capacity for technology investments.

“Any cuts greater than $7 million will impact public safety and employee positions,” Thiessen said.

CPS Deputy Chief Paul Cook said the city budget cuts could affect intelligence-gathering work conducted by the force in ways the public doesn’t see. In the past, the force has made significant investments in technology to assist their work, and Cook said these might not be possible.

Meanwhile, he said, there were 13 shootings in June alone, more than the force has seen in the last seven years.

“I can tell you right now that our call load is as high as it’s ever been and we’ve had the same amount of resources to respond to that competing demand,” Cook said.

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Thiessen added that CPS has received only half of two different provincial grants that it has typically seen in full by this time in the year, and they’re not sure about the status of the other half.

If they don’t receive the rest of that funding, CPS would have to come back to council looking for additional support in the fall.

Council went behind closed doors at around 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday to look at details of the budget cuts that have been confidential until Tuesday’s meeting. They hadn’t yet emerged to discuss and vote on any decisions by deadline.

Because the reductions involve a reconsideration of the budget plan hammered out last year, they need to be supported by two-thirds of city council members to pass, rather than a simple majority.

Despite a failed vote to hear public feedback on Monday, city council changed course Tuesday and allowed people to speak. Union leaders, university students and advocates alike pointed out the impact of city services such as transit and homeless shelters.

Calgarians lined up to plead for city council to spare services that help the city’s most vulnerable people.

Nigel Kirk, a member of the Calgary Homeless Foundation’s client action committee, said the cuts would not only affect homeless Calgarians, but also those with disabilities and mental health issues. He also told councillors that Calgary is seeing a high number of homeless deaths.

“That is unacceptable — and then we’re going to ask the most vulnerable Calgarians to give up even more,” Kirk said.

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Mary Salvani, a student at St. Mary’s University, told council she was glad it would not be cutting the city’s low-income bus pass. Mayor Naheed Nenshi said Monday that council isn’t currently looking at getting rid of the service.

Salvani asked the city to maintain funding for Calgary Transit Access, a transit program which helps Calgarians with disabilities. Despite having to book trips days in advance, she said its absence would leave many people with disabilities isolated and alone.

Union leaders pointed out they’ve already faced plenty of cutbacks over the years. D’Arcy Lanovaz, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ Local 38, said city workers have taken hiring delays, hiring freezes, and then staff reductions.

He also said morale is low among city staff. Not only are they facing increased workloads, Lanovaz said, but they also don’t know where Tuesday’s proposed cuts are coming from.

“There is a lot of fear and angst out there as to what services will have to be cut,” Lanovaz said. “Because if you cut people, you are, at this point, cutting services.”

The budget cuts are part of a package to offset tax increases faced by Calgary businesses as a result of the ongoing downtown tax shift. Since Alberta’s 2015 recession, the tenants of Calgary’s major office towers have fled, leaving them with declining property values. In turn, the city found itself facing a $250-million-per-year revenue hole.

To compensate, businesses outside of the downtown core have faced large spikes in their property tax bills. Over the past several years, city council has dipped into its reserve funds to cap non-residential property tax increases at 5 per cent. Proposals to adjust the tax distribution between businesses and homes have been floated, but none have passed council.

In June, city council voted to cut $60 million from its 2019 operating budget by the end of July to reduce non-residential property taxes by 10 per cent.

According to a city report released last week, 48 city services could be affected by the cuts. Budgets for the police, public transit, and fire and emergency response could lose $7 million each. These three departments comprise the most expensive services the city offers.

Other departments that may see cuts include streets — in line for nearly $5 million in reductions — and library services, with $1.8 million proposed. City officials said about $11.3 million of the cuts are coming from “efficiencies” and budget cuts were prioritized using a “least-harm” approach.

But the report warns front-line services will be impacted no matter what city council decided.

“Given the magnitude of the reductions and the short time frame for implementation, it was not possible to avoid impacts to front-line services,” the report reads.

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