Council last week unanimously approved a list of items outlining concerns about the provincial government’s proposed changes to the police funding model.
Chief administrative officer Linda Nelson said during the Sept. 23 meeting that Coun. Cheri Funke earlier that day had the opportunity to meet with municipal staff to further flesh out additional information for council to discuss before considering a motion.
Funke, who sits on the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association’s (AUMA) Police Act stakeholder working group, initially raised the alarm about the anticipated introduction of police costs during the Sept. 9 meeting. Under the current funding model municipalities with a population of fewer than 5,000 people do not have to pay for the provision of police services, an expense borne by the provincial government.
“There are 12 items that have been noted as items of concern that we want to bring forward to both AUMA and also to the submission that we’re going to be presenting to the government,” said Nelson.
The first was to point out that most municipal districts (MDs) and counties that already have populations greater than 5,000 have not been expected to pay into policing funding, she said.
“So if the government were to collect from MDs and counties that are over 5,000, this would alleviate the burden without penalizing smaller communities, including MDs and counties under 5,000.”
The second issue is that the proposed changes to the legislation will not include any mechanisms to access grants, putting the Town of Sundre at a disadvantage to larger municipalities, she said.
The third concern outlined, she continued, is that municipalities with RCMP contracts should have a mandated ability to determine priorities.
Next on the list, she said, is that “the original intent was to spread the costs for policing services over all municipalities; this is not the case, as this model contemplates additional revenue going towards policing services.”
She said in other words, the provincial government is not so much spreading out the cost but rather collecting additional revenue.
Additionally, imposing this expense on small towns like Sundre “will cause us to either reduce levels of service or increase taxes to individuals, who are already paying taxes for this service” through provincial taxation, she said.
Furthermore, she said the Municipal Government Act has mandated that municipalities must develop multi-year operating and capital plans by 2020 to ensure proper focus for future planning.
“In the case of the Town of Sundre, we have spent considerable time and effort to comply with this mandate, and will now need to go back to the table and revisit commitments made in the previous budget.”
Expanding on that point, Nelson said the currently proposed costing model is based on anywhere from 15 to 70 per cent cost recovery, which leaves the final result as being vague and open to significant changes in future years, with little to no notice.
Compounding the matter more are recent changes to RCMP ticket revenue reporting that has removed a large portion of that revenue from the municipalities, she said.
“What is critical is the fact that many smaller municipalities simply do not have the ability to pay,” she continued.
Another concern identified is the four major components in the proposed funding formula, which are equalized assessments, overall population, crime severity index, and shadow population, she said.
“Within these, there has been no rationalization for major calculation components as to why these components were chosen, and their effect on costs.”
Meanwhile, although the concept originally included more consideration for consultations surrounding all aspects of the Police Act, she said, “The only consultations that have taken place to date are with regard to the costing model.”
And finally, she said the changes to the provincial police funding model as proposed present a potential to create tension between all municipalities within a region, as there may be disagreements on human resource allocations, which contradicts the concept of regional cooperation and collaboration.
Later offering additional insight on the process to date, Nelson said the government has only made information available through webinars.
“That’s the only way they’re doing it,” she said, adding the government has not approached individual municipalities. Another webinar is scheduled for Oct. 4, she said.
Funke moved for council to support the 12 items identified as concerns for the proposed funding model presented by the province, and that those issues form the basis of the municipality’s submission to the government.
“This is just the first step,” said Funke.
If approved, she said the list of concerns would then be brought to the AUMA Police Act working group’s next meeting, which was scheduled the following day.
“We will still have to make our submission as our community, which I assume would be put together and brought back to the council meeting on Oct. 7 to finalize exactly what we send to the government itself.”
Her motion carried unanimously.
