The Edmonton Police Service is asking for almost $90 million more over four years to deal with higher call volumes and to enforce cannabis bylaws.

EPS, among the largest operating budgets in Edmonton, was the first to present its needs to council Thursday.

The current EPS operating budget is $337 million.

Thursday, the police service asked for an extra $87.1 million over four years to put 72 new officers on Edmonton’s streets.

“I think by adding more resources to the frontline we’re going to have more people that can respond to some of these calls and hopefully lessen the workload,” said Chief Kevin Brezinski of EPS.

According to EPS, there were 2,200 more calls over the last year.

“When they start a shift and there are 30 calls outstanding, it’s tough on our members, but more importantly, it’s really tough on our citizens as well,” the chief said.

EPS has also noticed more suspected cannabis-impaired drivers: 34, so far in 2018, compared to 11 last year.

Of cannabis legalization, Deputy Chief Alan Murphy said, “I don’t think anybody wants to overreact, but that the same time we want to make the public understand that there has been impact already.”

Because EPS expects to see those numbers rise, 24 of the new hires would be assigned to the cannabis file while others would be assigned to operations and the intelligence centre.

Calling it the “one big stinker of an issue that remains,” Mayor Don Iveson said there was a cumulative $8 million to deal with cannabis enforcement, and that he would refuse to make any more related costs taxpayers’ responsibility.

“I will not support raising property taxes to fund further costs of cannabis legalization. I am going to demand support either from the province or directly from the federal government,” he said.

As for the 24 cannabis-related officers, Iveson said “there may be other strategies for us to fund it using reserve funding if we have an expectation of recovering it against a more robust revenue sharing deal coming from the excise tax base,” adding that resources will have to be monitored yearly.

EPS will have to wait for other organizations to present to council before any budget decisions are made.

With files from Amanda Anderson