A special meeting of the city's executive policy committee got heated in Winnipeg on Tuesday.

The committee is mulling over details of the Winnipeg Police Service's $2.45-million budget shortfall.

The preliminary 2016 police service budget includes plans to lay off 40 of 68 cadets, cancel the 2016 recruitment class and lay off 20 of 37 members enrolled in the class, the police board revealed at its meeting Friday.

Mayor Brian Bowman and the executive policy committee grilled the police board on Tuesday morning over its proposed layoffs. The city has already offered to boost funding to the police service by 6.3 per cent this year, but it's not enough, according to outgoing police Chief Devon Clunis. The police board is asking the city to shell out more money to help cover the shortfall.

Members of the EPC fired questions at Don Norquay, the executive director of the police board, suggesting the force has to live within its means — and within the confines of that 6.3 per cent funding boost, an increase well above the cost of inflation.

Bowman sniped at the suggestion the city send more money to the service, saying, "Perhaps next year you should ask for a billion dollars."

Image | Barry Tuckett police board chair

Caption: Barry Tuckett, police board chair, speak to reporters after the Monday EPC meeting. (Sean Kavanagh/CBC)

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Bowman added that the police service has to get its spending increases down to the rate of inflation next year.

Police board vice-chair Barry Tuckett told reporters the shortfall comes because of increases in salaries for officers and rising costs associated with moving to the new police headquarters. The board looked everywhere for savings to avoid layoffs and will look again, Tuckett added.

Follow CBC Manitoba's city hall reporter Sean Kavanagh on Twitter (@SKKav) for updates from the EPC meeting.