INNISFAIL – The town is piggybacking on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM) prolonged battle against Ottawa over RCMP retroactive salary costs following the federal government’s notice in its recent budget that Canadian municipalities must absorb a cost of millions of dollars.
“We are extremely disappointed with this decision and we will continue advocating for a more equitable solution from the federal government,” said Innisfail mayor Jean Barclay in a media release. “They need to reconsider their stance. There is too much downloading of costs to municipalities and this is yet another example.”
Innisfail has been directed by the federal government to pay back $287,944 within two years.
During council’s regular meeting on April 10 Todd Becker, the town’s chief administrative officer, advanced a lengthy motion for Innisfail to join FCM’s advocacy to have the federal government pay the retroactive bill instead of insisting monies are owed by municipalities.
“FCM is disappointed to see that Budget 2023 does not contain a commitment to absorbing the retroactive costs stemming from the latest RCMP collective bargaining agreement, but rather offers details of a repayment period for municipalities,” said Taneen Rudyk, president of FCM, in a statement following the tabling of the 2023 federal budget.
“These costs, which can amount to millions of dollars in some municipal jurisdictions, were negotiated without municipalities being properly consulted and FCM is calling for municipalities to be actively involved in any future processes regarding contract policing.”
In a letter sent to Barclay on March 29, Talal Dakalbab senior assistant deputy minister for Public Safety Canada, noted that the signing of the first-ever collective agreement in August of 2021 with the National Police Federation, the bargaining agent representing the RCMP, resulted in pay increases that brought RCMP salaries in-line with other Canadian police services.
Under the new collective agreement the pay increases are retroactive to 2017.
“As you are aware, the Police Service Agreements require contract jurisdictions to pay their share of retroactive salary costs,” said Dakalbab’s letter.
However, that does not sit well with the Innisfail town council.
“Municipal governments are paying a growing share of policing costs, but they cannot run deficits and have limited revenue tools,” said the town in its council-approved media release.
“FCM has clearly reiterated the need for municipalities to be actively involved in any future processes regarding contract policing, calling this recent decision unacceptable.”
As for paying the federal government back for retroactive policing salary costs, the town was told it had to complete and return a Confirmation of Intent document by April 15 to indicate whether it would accept the extended two-year payment schedule.
While confirming the content of the federal document, Becker added if the town did not sign the federal government would “assume” the bill would be paid almost immediately.
“If the town decides to delay to see what advocacy could be placed it would be my advice as administration to delay as long as possible until another time,” said Becker. “If you do not sign the agreement or delay or make a decision too late you are paying the bill right away.
“It is my advice to you if you wish to consider advocating and working with other stakeholders to apply advocacy, I’d say sign off with that delayed payment for up to that two-year period.”
Council passed a separate motion to direct administration to enter into a two-year RCMP retroactive payment schedule with the federal government.
Later in the meeting council signalled to administration it would approve setting aside new surplus monies into a dedicated reserve fund to pay the $287,944 bill if continued advocacy fails.
