In a Regina Police report debated on Monday, the federal government is covering the cost of sending 20 police officers to the Vancouver Olympics.  Twenty police officers being sent to Vancouver will be costing Canadians $169,400 for base salaries, $149,000 for overtime and per diem expenses of $15,600 for a total of $334,900. 

This is likely how the staff are to be collected, that being, seconding the staff from across Canada.  There has already been some concern about rural RCMP officers going to the Olympics and leaving the towns and rural Canada unsecure.  How many other cities and communities across Canada are being limited in their capacity to handle crime?

In Regina, there are 529 FTE staff positions in the Regina Police Service.  The report does not identify how many of those are police officers or how many are civilian staff.  The secondment to the Olympics is a 3.7% decrease in overall staff during the period of the Olympics.  This will likely create limits to taking holidays and increases in overtime.  This year's overtime bank is increased by 222,500 with a cost recovery of $184,900.  How much of this will be utilized during the Olympic period, one can only speculate, perhaps none.

But because the discussion and presentation of this budget was in a closed door in camera meeting last week with the Regina Police Commission, it is likely that any speculation on the side of the Police Service or the Commission will never been known.  As well, it would be unlikely that a report will come after the Olympics to assess their impact on the Regina Police Budget. 

Are Regina residents being asked whether they want to support the ballooning $1 Billion security budget?  Are they willing to send their police officers to perhaps arrest protesters of the corporate greenwashing or extinguish Canadian human rights of Vancouver and Whistler residents?

Of course, this will not include the police presence at the Torch Relay that came through this city last weekend.  Is this a cost of the Olympics or a cost for Regina taxpayers?

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