Guelph Police Service is hoping to build a new training facility in the next 10 years as they look to modernize its shooting range.
The service is also hoping to expand the fourth floor of its recently-renovated headquarters in the next four years.
The estimated costs for those projects is $7.4 million and $14.5 million, respectively, to be included in the 10-year capital budget forecast. Both projects will be covered largely by development charges.
Where the training facility would be, or what it would look like, isn’t known yet, though the estimated cost doesn’t include the cost of any land purchase if it were necessary.
“The range is very old. We use it for training, we rely on it,” said deputy chief Daryl Goetz during the police board meeting Thursday.
Right now, they shoot both indoors and outdoors. But they can’t shoot carbine rifles (which he said are safety measures for officers on the road) inside with their current facility, so their training is weather-dependent.
“We don’t have an indoor place to fire that, because it’s meant for longer distances,” Goetz said.
He also said as Guelph continues to grow, firing outdoors will increasingly impact noise levels, safety and the environment.
“I’m envisioning our current situation now, in a couple of years from now, will probably not be as ideal,” he said. “That’s why we’re identifying the need for an indoor facility.”
In the meantime, they’re estimating $200,000 will come out of the 2025 budget to bring the current indoor range “up to snuff,” Goetz said.
Mayor Cam Guthrie, who sits on the police board, asked if it would be possible to create a shared facility with another police department to cut costs.
“If other cities are growing, and there’s a concern for Guelph, then do our surrounding services already have this in play and we don’t? Or are they too looking for the same type of facilities where, could there be a joint effort?” he asked.
Goetz said he knows of a nearby service of exploring similar options, and that sharing would be a “great idea.”
“We will explore that. The only downfall to it is travel time. If we have to travel to another agency’s area, that’s time that our officers are not on the road,” he said.
For instance, if at 2 a.m. there are enough officers on the road, the supervisor decides to send three officers to the shooting range, “if you have to drive 45 minutes or an hour to go somewhere, you’re a lot less likely to do that, and your resources are gone.
“It’s a great idea, I’m just not sure if we’d actually be able to carry it through. And we’d be subject to availability if that was somebody else's,” he said.
Board member Jane Armstrong said she liked the sharing idea as well, and noted that given the price of land, officers could end up driving long distances anyway, even if they don’t partner with another organization.
She asked if they could provide more cost-related information with the land purchase in mind going forward.
Both Armstrong and Guthrie said they’d like more details around what the use of the fourth floor will be as well, since that hasn’t been settled on yet. Moving the Clair Road Emergency Services Centre from the south end into the fourth floor was one possibility mentioned.
Chief Gord Cobey said there will be more community discussion before that decision is finalized.