Backgrounder: Modernize the Municipal Police Cost Sharing Formulas

Backgrounder:

• The Province's goal is to increase the number of homes in our communities, but a deterrent is the additional costs that this growth with have on RCMP dues for smaller communities.
• Currently, municipalities with populations from 5,000 to 14,999 pay 70 percent of the cost base described in the policing agreements. The federal government pays the remaining 30 percent.
• Municipalities with populations of 15,000 or more pay 90 percent of the cost base described in the policing agreements. The federal government pays the remaining 10 percent.
• Small communities that exceed populations of 5,000 or 15,000 by just a handful of people, are required to take on a significantly greater amount of police funding. This is a deterrent to grow for those communities nearing these populations.
• These policing costs are in addition to a considerable number of new costs that municipalities will be grappling with as they implement the new Provincial housing legislation and other infrastructure for growing communities.
• Policing costs for small communities is increasingly large for even current populations. Funding requests from the RCMP in recent years have already escalated due to salary increases, new equipment such as body cams, and increased workloads (wellness checks, hospital reliance on policing) etc.
• For many small communities police buildings are, or will shortly, be unable to accommodate more officers, support staff, and secure storage of equipment that comes with servicing larger populations. This construction comes at an astronomical price tag, which is borne by taxpayers.
• The combination of all these costs to taxpayers, which have been downloaded from the Province, will cause many in our communities to struggle financially or move to other places where the cost of living is more reasonable.
• We understand that the current policing contract is still in effect until 2032, but given the Province's extraordinary measures to increase populations in small communities, it warrants an early review and revision.
• Therefore, we request the Solicitor General to negotiate a higher population rate for costs than the current 5,000 and 15,000 rates to reflect the Province's encouragement and urgency for small communities to grow.