The North Bay Police Service is trying to figure out how to deal with a combined deficit for 2016, of nearly $360,000.
North Bay Police Chief Shawn Devine believes the lions share of the deficit is attributed to a Workplace Safety and Insurance Board surcharge, stemming from a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) medical claim, of just over $314,000.
"We were aware that the provincial government was looking at new legislation with regards to PTSD," said Devine.
"The presumptive legislation came into effect in June 2016. We didn't understand the ramifications of that."
Under the legislation if someone makes a claim that they are suffering from what has to be identified as PTSD, the presumption is that they have the disorder.
The police chief said "It wasn't until the end of November that we were actually advised that as a result of a PTSD claim, we were going to be surcharged in the amount of over $314,000."
The 2016 budget was set in 2015 before the legislation was passed. The police board has authorized the transfer of some funds to be applied towards the deficit.
The Police Chief stated that $314,000 sounds like "an enormous amount of money, how do you put a value on the employees mental health?"
Dennis O'Connor, Chair of the North Bay Police Services Board, said the problem with the legislation, is that the board can't budget for it ahead of time.
"We were actually expecting $58,000 on the plus side," said O'Connor.
"What's going to happen in the future if we had anybody else going on PTSD? We can go up to a max of $600,000. We don't budget for that, but we're going to have to budget something in our future budgets."
O'Connor noted it is impossible to predict numbers.
"We're not really sure how many people will stay on PTSD or how many numbers we're going to have on PTSD. But we have hired a company with a medical background to track anybody who is on medical disability or has some other issues, and they're going to try and get them back to work as soon as they can."
While the board recognizes that PTSD is a serious medical condition, O'Connor said the issue for emergency service boards is that they are not financially ready for this new legislation.
