By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

AUMA pushing ‘everybody pays’ model for police funding

Feb 17, 2018 | 6:00 AM

The provincial government is being put under increased scrutiny as municipalities across Alberta are being asked to support a letter campaign which endorses a more equitable model of police funding.

The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) is appealing to municipal governments to sign a letter calling for the end of a system where not all municipalities have to pay for their policing.

The letter points out policing costs are only paid by urban communities with a population greater than 5,000, while smaller communities, counties and municipal districts are all exempt.

Complicating matters is that from 2008 to 2016, municipal policing costs have increased 23.3 per cent while the Municipal Policing Assistance Grant (MPAG) has gone up only 15.8 per cent.

Sylvan Lake Mayor Sean McIntyre says when his council signed the letter this week, it was in the name of safety.

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“Crime is something that we’ve all been facing. We’ve seen increases, particularly in rural Alberta, as well as those areas outside of municipalities with a population over 5000,” he says. “We feel like an ‘everybody pays model’ will help get more RCMP out there and hopefully increase crime prevention as well. At the end of the day, the goal is to keep everyone safe.”

Currently, a municipality the size of Sylvan Lake — 14,816 as of 2016 — pays 70 per cent of its policing costs, while the federal government pays the rest. The province provides a grant through the MPAG, which for Sylvan Lake will amount to $415,000 in 2018. Sylvan’s total policing costs this year are approximately $2.9 million, $2.05 million which will be paid by the Town (for 16 members).

Blackfalds, with a population of 9,916, falls under the same payment structure and will fork out a net $566,000 for policing in 2018. They received $276,000 from the MPAG last year to pay for seven members.

Mayor Richard Poole acknowledges this must be a difficult process for the province to work through.

“However, when you look at a county that is surrounding a municipality for example, they may have up to 20,000 persons within that county,” he says. “The county isn’t required to put in any funding for that. It’s just a matter of finding a way that both rural and the municipalities can get along and provide a good funding model that’s fair for everyone.”

Poole predicts once talks progress, there will be resistance from those communities which are currently exempt.

But those talks may not happen for some time as the AUMA points out staff at the Justice Ministry have said consultations likely won’t occur until after the 2019 provincial election. According to the AUMA letter, Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley said last March that there would be a review of funding models in the fall.