INNISFAIL - The town has joined most other Alberta municipalities by bringing in fees for anyone wanting a criminal record check.
It was a service that was always provided for free but on July 8 town council approved a new Criminal Record Check Bylaw that establishes fees for the service that has and will continue to be provided at the Innisfail RCMP detachment.
"The RCMP presented information that other municipalities have a fee for issuing criminal record checks and perhaps something administration would be interested in looking at," said Heather Whymark, the town's corporate services director, in her report to council on July 8. She noted council had approved the expense of an additional municipal clerk in the town's 2019 Budget to help with the increased volume of paperwork at the local RCMP detachment.
"This (fees) would be used to help offset the expense of the new position," said Whymark.
Her report to council said the new bylaw establishes a $40 fee for a standard check and $60 for a check flagged for fingerprints. Volunteers and students will pay $5 unless flagged for fingerprints, which will cost $10, said the report to council.
Whymark told council the fees for the service at the detachment are to be paid in cash only.
Coun. Doug Bos said he was surprised it was cash only but Whmark said the RCMP requested it as they did not want to run any payments for service through their office. As well, added Whymark, there are banks nearby to serve citizens who required cash to pay for the service.
Innisfail RCMP Sgt. Lori Eiler said the town's move to charge for criminal record checks is "not unusual" as most communities in the province are doing so.
"If you went around the province you would probably find we were really late to the game as far as implementing a bylaw like that. It is not unusual in other places," said Eiler. "As far as keeping up with the admin side of police work in general it is very taxing. Criminal record checks are a real reality of something that is required by almost every employer and volunteer situations. There are costs associated to that, so I think it is not a bad idea to attempt to recoup some of those costs."
She said her detachment is also seeing repeated requests for the same criminal record checks to be done, duplicating free staff efforts often because the records were lost or misplaced.
"We have a lot of people come in requesting criminal record checks be done and they get done and people never return to pick them up," said Eiler, noting her detachment now has three municipal clerks, including one hired this year to handle the increased extra paperwork. "That is a real serious waste of resources when those kinds of things happen. I think the fee structure may help offset those issues."
Eiler said last week she still needs to meet with town officials to work out the fee structure and other details of the new bylaw.
