By battlefordsNOW

Town of Battleford keeps policing costs status quo

Oct 17, 2018 | 3:00 PM

The Town of Battleford will be keeping its RCMP policing costs status quo for the immediate future, in response to a proposal by another municipality to move to a new system.

At its recent meeting Battleford council defeated the Town of Carnduff’s Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) resolution to request community RCMP detachments with under-5,000 population be charged on a prorated basis, according to the detachment staffing levels.

Battleford councillors Shelley Boutin-Gervais, Gordon Yarde and Susan McLean Tady were absent for the meeting.

The Town of Carnduff stated in a letter to other municipalities with populations under 5,000 the proposed resolution would help correct “unfair policing” costs. It also pointed out its concerns with understaffed RCMP detachments. Carnduff hoped to have cities support the resolution as well.

Battleford Chief Administrative Officer John Enns-Wind said he had issues with the wording of Carnduff’s resolution, saying it wasn’t very clear. As well, he said Carnduff didn’t clarify in the resolution what “staffing” means, and whether that includes RCMP officer parental leaves, or absence for illness or long-term leaves, as an example.

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“It’s very difficult to enforce, I would think,” he said, adding that the RCMP do have staffing challenges that the town has been aware of for some time. 

The CAO added the province actually picks up most of the policing costs in Saskatchewan.

“The challenge of this one is that it’s very similar to something that was done last year, and it’s really not very clear the way it’s presented to us,” Enns-Wind said to council.

A similar resolution asking for a per-capita-rate for populations under 5,000 proposed by Lumsden was narrowly defeated at SUMA’s prior convention.

Enns-Wind pointed out once a resolution is defeated at SUMA’s convention, it can’t be brought before the floor again for another three years. He said while the new resolution is different, it has too many gaps.

Mayor Ames Leslie said he doesn’t favour Carnduff’s proposal.

“At this time we just don’t feel that it’s worded in a way that council can support it,” Leslie said. “We pay a flat fee to the RCMP. We don’t have a guaranteed amount of members. This resolution would do nothing to make it better for the taxpayers of the Town of Battleford so we won’t support it.” 

He said the town already pays less than the city for policing with the current flat rate.

The next SUMA annual convention will take place in February 2019.

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow