The City of Abbotsford continues to budget tens of millions of dollars for the construction of a new police facility in the years to come, although the exact cost and form of a building remains undecided.
Last year’s budget included a $40 million item for a new police building in 2021. (A preliminary budget in 2018 had suggested the city would look at taking out a loan to finance a new building as early as this year.) This year’s preliminary budget, which council saw earlier this month, has pushed the project back until 2022, while increasing the projected cost to $56 million. The budget has not yet been approved.
Those figures are essentially placeholders while the city discusses what is possible and what is needed, Mayor Henry Braun told The News.
“That’s a discussion we’re having in-house,” he said. “We’re not where we are making a decision, but we are looking at options and so is the police board.”
Braun said the existing police headquarters is “busting at the seams.”
But he said no decisions have been made about how to find the APD more room.
“We have to do something. Something is going to come from this discussion. I just don’t know what yet. And it may be a new police building, but it may not. It may be utilization of other things.”
Braun said a new building won’t be coming “for a few years” but the city is preparing for having to spend money on a project.
“One of these days, we’re going to get together with the police board and say, ‘OK, how are we going to do this,’” he said. “It’s going to cost some money. I just don’t know how much yet.”
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