Hamilton police ask city to help borrow $14M for new forensics building
Hamilton police will ask city council next month to borrow more than $14 million on their behalf to build a much-needed investigative services building for forensics work.
We are busting at the seams. We have no room.- Deputy Chief Ken Weatherill
But that may be a tough sell with at least a couple of councillors, who have expressed doubts about the project in the past.
Hamilton Police Service will ask the city to borrow $14,173,974 for the building, which it says has been needed since the late 1990s. Then the service will pay the city back.
The matter will go to city council's general issues committee on Sept. 21. But it got little opposition on Friday, when the police services board listened to a detailed plan of how the service would repay the loan.
"We're going to grow over time," said Mayor Fred Eisenberger, who like other board members, voted for the plan. "There'll be demand for more policing in more areas."
But not every council member has always been that eager about the project.
Prosecutions before the court are at risk.- Deputy Chief Ken Weatherill
Last February, for example, Coun. Chad Collins voted against using money from various city reserves to contribute to the project. He called the plan to fund it "fiscally irresponsible."
And Coun. Matthew Green introduced a motion in May against the service putting last year's $3,680,948 budget surplus toward the building.
"Clearly they are circumventing not just our policies, but our decision-making abilities for taxpayer dollars," he said then.
How the service would pay it back
Deputy Chief Ken Weatherill said Friday that the service can cover about $10 million of the $24,323,210 project through a pair of reserves.
It will also use $428,782 from its operating budget for the next 15 years to pay back the loan, said Chief Eric Girt.
In 2020, the service will also have paid off its Mountain division station on Rymal Road. Then it can put those annual payments of $716,000 toward paying back the forensics building loan.
The service has a parcel of downtown land to build the facility, but hasn't been able to secure money from the federal or provincial governments.
Weatherill said the building is absolutely necessary.
"We do not have the capacity to deal with the new technology," he told the board. "We are busting at the seams. We have no room."
'We are at risk as a community'
Police need three separate investigative rooms to process evidence, Weatherill said.
"We are at risk as a community because we don't have three labs, which is the recommended minimum standard in the province of Ontario," Weatherill said, although he later added that many services don't have this.
"Prosecutions before the court are at risk."
The whole project will cost $24,323,210 with "soft costs" such as soil remediation, furnishing and fixtures, Weatherill said. The actual construction will cost $15.5 million.
The board also voted to meet with the Niagara Regional Police Service (NRPS) to see how it can share services. That came after a letter from Bob Gale, chair of the NRPS board.
But Girt said Hamilton already shares services with Niagara and Halton whenever possible.