The Treaty Three Police Service board has finally broken its silence surrounding its decision to close down the aboriginal police department.A week after announcing the closure, the board has issued a press release saying government underfunding and not financial mismanagement were responsible for the decision.
The board says a number of factors played into their decision, including an arbitration ruling which gave the Treaty Three officer wage parity with the OPP.
The Board says it had to lay off seven officers as a result and says if it continued to pay those rates, they would run up a deficit of 3.3 million dollars.
It adds that even though the federal and provincial governments have committed to continue funding the police service, there is no additional
money to cover the wage increases.
