OLDS — Two representatives of Alberta RCMP were told to sharpen their fiscal pencils, because a pay raise to RCMP members, retroactive to 2017, will cost the Town of Olds an extra $800,000 over five years.
Coun. Darren Wilson made that recommendation during the Town of Olds council’s June 23 meeting, estimating that that extra $800,000 will boost the town’s policing bill from $2.1million to roughly $3 million by about 2029.
“Like a lot of municipalities, that's tough for us to absorb,” Wilson said. “Every $100,000 is the equivalent of a one per cent tax increase. So I state the obvious, keep your pencils razor sharp.”
Wilson made that comment near the end of a presentation on the Municipal Policing Services Agreement, (MPSA), given by Nina Sahasrabuddhe, the Alberta RCMP’s executive director of strategy, business and innovation, and chief superintendent Wayne Nichols, commanding Officer of the RCMP’s Southern Alberta District.
The presentation and question and answer period lasted about 55 minutes.
Wilson noted that under the current policing agreement, as a community of less than 15,000 people, Olds is required to pay 70 per cent of the cost for RCMP to police the community. The federal government pays the remaining 30 per cent.
“I guess for us as a municipality, our challenge is linking in with the federal government from an advocacy perspective around that 70/30 split and a new physical framework, not only for RCMP costs, but infrastructure and everything else,” he said.
“The $800,000 premised an additional two staff, which I know is variable, depending on all your other metrics, but that's a lot of dollars for us to absorb.”
Sahasrabuddhe sympathized.
“Noted and appreciated, and we hear this across the province and likely across the country,” she said. “We do hear this, and I will say (in recent) years especially, our pencils have sharpened tremendously because of comments like that.”
She noted that the current RCMP policing contract was entered into in 2012 and expires in 2032.
“For sure, the province will be starting to think about negotiating the new contract and getting ready for that, and definitely should be advocating on behalf of municipalities,” Sahasrabuddhe said.
Throughout their presentation, Sahasrabuddhe and Nichols said the RCMP is keenly aware of the costs and is doing everything it can to keep costs as low as possible and to be as efficient as possible.
They said those efforts range from staff and vehicle costs, to costs for equipment like pistols, body armour and body-worn cameras.
Nicols and Sahasrabuddhe also pointed out that the RCMP provide many services that aren’t charged to municipalities, such as work done by its major crimes unit. Sahasrabuddhe said even police dog costs aren’t charged to municipalities.
Sahasrabuddhe and Nichols also said the cost of the K Division (Alberta) operations centre, which coordinates policing throughout the province, is not billed to municipalities.
In the end, council voted to receive the presentation on the MPSA as information.
