Rhino's Ramblings - Power And The Police Budget
By Robert Thomas Opinion/Commentary
It has been a good week when it comes to the quest to Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests.
With four requests out there floating around in various stages of completion it was great to hear some good news on the FOI front.
This past week I by far received the biggest ever request in the history of MJ Independent and that is I finally received the file from SaskPower in relation to what went in to the final decision to select Moose Jaw as the location of the new Great Plains Power Station.
Is there something scurrilous there?
From my initial reading and listening to audio recordings I would have to say no. But it is all part of the process the media should be engaging in in order to keep things transparent and accountable.
I will have to admit it took a lot of work and determination to receive hundreds of pages discussing the initial four locations, then two locations (Moose Jaw and Belle Plaine) and the reasonings to make the final decision to select Moose Jaw.
I even had to use another unrelated FOI decision I was involved in as part of my argument as to access what I received.
And yes some might well react - audio recordings? Yes I also received some of them as part of the release.
All I can say I made some very good legal arguments to get the most total package of items that from chatting with business people, sources at City Hall and others connected to the project they had not seen or were unaware of their existence.
It is a bit of coup I suppose in the quest to print the truth no matter if it is good, bad or ugly.
On an interim basis the best way to sum it all up it is a story about greed, lobbying and a need to beat upcoming carbon tax/environmental legislation.
I will publish that story or stories once I complete some more research - reading and listening.
This week was also the week that the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) had what I predicted long ago would be a media controlled introduction of their new tactical team.
A team which already has over the months drawn its critics within the community as the MJPS seemingly moves away from the PACT (Police and Crisis Team) model to a more militarized way of dealing with crime in the community.
The questions being asked are why? and how much is this going to cost us?
As to the questions as to why other than what the MJPS is selectively telling the other media (or is it selective media?) we really do not know.
In documents obtained by MJ Independent through a Freedom Of Information request the reasons for needing a tactical team are 100 percent redacted.
Which means the true reasons - according to the documents filed to obtain the tactical gear funding - are not being released to the public. Plain and simple.
It is now, in my own opinion, whatever the MJPS wish to spin to the community.
If you buy it then you buy it if you don’t then you are never ever going to discover it without a protracted legal battle without any guarantees in the end they will release anything.
The next question is exactly how much did the new tactical team cost the citizens of Moose Jaw?
Well a lot has been said about the fact the MJPS received $70,000 from the proceeds of crime funding to buy the equipment for the new tactical team.
According to the FOI the MJPS is allowed to purchase basic equipment for the tactical team and they have one year to spend the money. The funding can not be used for training or operating the team. Just to purchase the basic equipment. There will be no extensions and any unused funds must be returned to the Province.
So that means exactly how much is this costing the MJPS or rather the local taxpayer?
It is fairly well known from my questions of the powers to be as well as this column I have been requesting additional details regarding the MJPS’s budget. Details which so far have yet to be publicly released.
I made my official request seven months ago for documents relating to the MJPS’s budget.
And received one additional response from the Moose Jaw Board of Police Commissioners and was simply told everything else related to the MJPS’s budget was conducted in-camera, behind closed doors and away from the public.
Although they are not releasing further details of their budget here is what I can tell you what I have been told when it comes to the tactical team.
Through my confidential sources I have discovered the MJPS last year assigned $100,000 in their budget for the establishment of the Tactical Team. Sources who backed this up with documentation. Information which had two members of the MJPS traveling to Regina to train with the Regina Police Service (RPS) in August of last year (something other local media have never publicly released).
Documentation that had MJPS Chief Rick Bourassa have the Regina Police Service (RPS) investigate me for and I am guessing hoping that I would cough up who told me what.
Something I am never ever going to release.
But back to the costs of the tactical team and what reliable sources told me.
According to what I have been able to compile $170,000 has so far been set aside for a MJPS tactical team - $100,000 in the MJPS’s budget and $70,000 from the proceeds of crime.
Now is the amount justified?
I have had more than a few people over the last few days send me things which say the real way to reduce crime is not through the creation of a local tactical team but rather through programs and mental health supports.
Some are making the point there is not enough money to train the PACT teams and the MJPS is moving ahead with the creation of a tactical team who are going beyond the community when what we truly need are officers and resources deployed here.
The Meth Epidemic or Crisis is causing all sorts of petty thefts and robberies and the real way to stop it is through having officers deployed here and not helping out other municipalities is what more than a few are saying to me.
Are they right? I don’t know. But I do know they make good points.
I am asked again and again about this and all I can say is I don’t know but there are two sides to the story.
It all leaves me wondering in those dozens of redacted document pages is there not something really sinister going on that the MJPS does not want the average citizen to know about.
I ask myself at times has crime gotten that bad here that it has gone beyond the control of the MJPS?
I just don’t know is my honest answer.
Maybe if the MJPS voluntarily released the information perhaps it would be enough for members of the public asking questions.
But this column is suppose to be about FOIs and what I can tell you is my initial two requests to access the MJPS’s budget has now morphed into five separate files with the Saskatchewan Freedom of Information and Privacy Commissioner’s office.
As far as I know all of these files are presently under active investigation.
All of them are somehow tied to my request to have legally the most information in the MJPS’s budget publicly released.
It is that simple - release what is allowed, redact what is not legal to be released and inform the people.
And yes I know this is all a new area being explored under LAFOIP.
The area as to what budgetary information from a municipal police force under the Saskatchewan Police Act and the Local Access to Freedom of Information and Privacy has never been decided through an access to information officer in Saskatchewan.
I spoke to a couple of lawyers knowledgeable about Freedom Of Information legislation and they told me since 2016 - when municipal police forces fell under LAFOIP legislation - there have been no cases which have decided what is releasable and what may remain private when it comes to municipal police force’s budgets.
And that is where it all stands. What comes out of my request or FOI of the MJPS’s budget is likely to set legal precedent or reference for all municipal police forces in Saskatchewan.
The quest continues…