Mayor's Report - March 2006

In October 2003 I reported that Solicitor General Rich Coleman had announced the postponement until 2007 of the proposal to have communities under 5,000 population pay policing costs. On March 8^th, 2006, Solicitor General John Les wrote to UBCM to advise that the Province is moving forward with plans to transfer policing costs to small communities, and that the Province plans to introduce the required amendments to the Police Act in the Spring 2006 legislative session.

On March 15^th the GVRD’s Small Communities Policing Costs Task Force was provided an overview of the new model for transferring policing costs to small communities from staff of the Police Services Division of the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General. The Ministry’s stated objective was to recover 50% of the actual policing costs, and the proposed calculation method was to be based on a combination of tax base and population.

While this new approach is a great improvement over the model originally presented in 2003, the new model does not go far enough to promote equity amongst the 84 small communities in BC. Specifically, while the proposed allocation mechanism now incorporates both property assessments and population as a proxy to determine funding, it is still significantly biased towards property assessments. This results in small communities within the GVRD paying significantly more per household than other small communities elsewhere in BC. For Belcarra, the currently proposed model would translate into approximately $50,000 per year for the community, or about $64 per capita, which is about twice the amount of the average levy.

The Task Force does not believe that property assessments reflect either the ability to pay or the level of service used, and believes that GVRD small communities should pay the same as, or at least close to, the same cost per household as any other small community in BC for the same level of service. Accordingly, the Task Force has requested that the anticipated police funding legislation include a ‘cap/floor’ to ensure that all small communities’ payments are at least within a range of the proposed 50% recovery target, thus ensuring some reasonable level of equity. The Task Force has suggested that all small communities pay a minimum of 40% of their actual policing costs, but no more than 60% as part of the recovery mechanism. The currently proposed funding model (using a combination of both assessments and population) would still apply, but it would be subject to this range.

While the Task Force’s suggestion would mean cost recovery for policing in small communities within the GVRD would still be high compared to most other small communities within the province, at least the differences would be less significant. Let’s hope that the Solicitor General agrees with the need for equity and accepts the suggestion of GVRD’s Small Communities Policing Costs Task Force.

Update: The GVRD’s Small Communities Policing Costs Task Force met with Solicitor General John Les and MLA Iain Black on April 20^th to discuss the most recent provincial proposal. The Task Force was provided with the (now released) discussion paper entitled: Police Financng In British Columbia – A New Police Financing Model in Small Communities and Rural Areas. The paper includes the estimated annual costs for BC's small communities and rural areas. It doesn't appear that the Solicitor General is prepared to accept the GVRD's Task Force suggestion.

Search www.belcarra.ca Search WWW