Lower Mainland municipalities want lower RCMP costs

Richmond councillor Greg Halsey-Brandt says municipalities serviced under contract by the RCMP should get a break in terms of policing costs.

Halsey-Brandt insists that the current funding formula must be changed, with either the provincial or federal government absorbing more expenses.

“Last year, our RCMP cost [in Richmond], I think, was a 10-percent increase overall,” Halsey-Brandt told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. “It’s so hard to sustain other programs when you’ve got increased costs like that. You end up having to cut back on other things to cover the RCMP or reduce programs or raise taxes more than you want to. It looks like that’s going to happen again this year for us, so it’s not a very pleasant prospect.”

Under the current RCMP contract, which is due to expire on March 31, 2012, municipalities with populations in excess of 15,000 pay 90 percent of total expenses, excluding overtime, with the federal government picking up the remaining 10 percent of the tab.

Municipalities with populations ranging from 5,000 to 15,000 pay 70 percent of the cost of RCMP services.

But according to a June 20, 2010, memorandum prepared by the secretariat of the Union of B.C. Municipalities, local governments may not find significant relief from the ongoing renegotiation of the RCMP contract.

The report noted that back in 2007, “federal negotiators received approval from Cabinet to maintain the current cost shares and population thresholds.”

Municipalities, according to the document, wanted the funding formula of 90-10 and 70-30 adjusted to 70-30 and 50-50.

Instead, the B.C. negotiating team has proposed that the federal government modify the cost-sharing agreement covering cadet training, regional integrated teams, divisional administration, complaints process, and police dogs from the present 90-10 to 70-30.

The memorandum also stated that an “agreement in principle” for a new 20-year RCMP contract is expected by fall.

Former Mountie Kevin Begg, now assistant deputy minister and director of police services with the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, heads the committee representing B.C. and seven other provinces in the contract-renewal talks with the federal government. Begg declined an interview request by the Straight. The ministry wouldn’t make available any officials who could talk on the record about the negotiations.

Halsey-Brandt noted that many municipal officials are frustrated over the lack of public input into the contract talks. “We’re asking for more transparency,” he said. “We’re just the ones that pay the money and have no information on it and no real say on it.”

Results of an Angus Reid survey in December 2009 showed a steep decline in the public-approval rating of the RCMP in B.C. The poll indicated that 61 percent of British Columbians reported that their “confidence in the internal operations and leadership of the RCMP has decreased over the last two years”.

Doug MacKay-Dunn, a former Vancouver police officer and now a councillor in the District of North Vancouver, noted that many local-government officials are worried that their councils may not have enough time to review the terms of their new contracts with the RCMP.

“We’re concerned that they don’t wait until the last minute to jam it through and say, ”˜Oh, well, we don’t have much time. We have to make these decisions now,’ ” MacKay-Dunn told the Straight by phone.