A delegation that included RCMP and Ministry of Public Safety representatives met with Creston town council and staff on Feb. 21 to help clarify the impending change to local policing.
Under current legislation, municipalities with a population of more than 5,000 must pay for 70 per cent of their policing costs. Effective April 1, Creston, which has a population of 5,306 in the latest census results, now must pay based on actual costs. Until now, taxpayers had contributed to a portion of provincial policing costs.
There was some good news, though. Ministry representative Lisa Godenzie, director for RCMP contract policing, said the province will require the town to pay for seven, not eight, police officers, as originally announced.
“This is the first time we have ever made a reduction in what a municipality has to pay for,” she said.
Godenzie said the requirement was reconsidered because one RCMP officer from the Creston detachment works almost exclusively on Bountiful issues at the direction of the province. A provincial supreme court decision last year to uphold the constitutionality of anti-polygamy laws has left the government to decide how to proceed in laying charges.
“When she (the officer) isn’t working on the Bountiful case, she is assigned mainly to marijuana grow operation investigations, so she really isn’t working on local assignments,” Godenzie said. “So a decision has been made to exclude that position from our calculations.”
Town council also learned that it will receive a portion of traffic ticket revenues, which are calculated provincewide and then divvied up among municipalities.
Godenzie said the province also works to lighten the cost burden in municipalities by assigning all detachment vacancies to the towns and cities.
“If there is any unfilled position in the Creston detachment, regardless of whether it is a town or rural officer, that vacancy will be assigned to the Creston side,” she said.
In the event that a member transfers out and a replacement is made immediately, the town would only pay for five officers during the vacancy period.
Staff Sgt. Bob Gollan said the town will also have the option of making one of the three detachment clerks a town, rather than federal, employee.
“You will have that choice,” he told council. “If there is a cost saving to having that clerk employed by the town, you will get the benefits of the savings.”
Gollen said one clerk is leaving the detachment this week, leaving the town to decide how to fill the position.
The province has also agreed to pay for 1.5 clerical positions, a change to earlier information that the town could have to pay for two.
The province mandates policing levels for all municipalities, Godenzie said. The number of police officers required in a detachment is based on a number of criteria, including population served and the number of Criminal Code cases.
In turn, municipalities can choose to contract with the RCMP or another municipality to provide policing, or to set up their own service.
Under the provincial contract with the RCMP, municipalities pay about $145,000 per officer, a figure that includes administrative costs and benefits. A three-year officer makes about $78,000 annually, according to the RCMP website. A staff sergeant earns $101,405 after two years in the position. The Creston Fire Rescue fire chief earns $104,536 annually.
