Rural policing promise comes with a cost

By Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean Times Contributor

Alberta Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer announced on Dec 4. that hundreds of RCMP officers would be added to rural areas to tackle rural crime.
“The Government of Alberta’s new police funding model will inject more than $286 million over five years into frontline law enforcement for these additional RCMP officer and civilian positions,” stated the news release. “This new cost-sharing partnership will see small and rural communities begin to pay a portion of frontline policing costs, bringing them into line with larger communities and cities.”
The terminology – cost-sharing partnership – is pleasant enough, but local municipalities haven’t been feeling much like “partners” in the decision-making.
With some as yet unnamed exceptions, small and rural communities will begin contributing 10 per cent of policing costs in 2020, 15 per cent in 2021, 20 per cent in 2022 and 30 per cent in 2023.
Wheatland County Councillor Jason Wilson said the additional costs were not small for the county.
“Wheatland will be looking at (increased costs from) $300,000 to $1 million over the next four years,” he said. “If we are being forced to pay such costs, I’d rather see a regional or provincial police force where boundaries follow (municipal) borders, and local boards have governing power.”
While the Town of Strathmore is not directly affected by the proposed increases, Mayor Pat Fule noted that as a central hub within Wheatland County, the town has a role to play.
“We need to look at the entire problem with rural crime” Fule said in a statement. “There are very clear lines that can be drawn from cuts to social programs to a rise in crime. The RCMP are a big part of the solution, but so are community support programs currently under the threat of cuts.
“We support the province’s priority on rural crime reduction” Fule added, “However, what we’ve seen so far is that this priority is being paid for by municipalities. The province needs to step up with more funding of its own if it believes this is a real priority.”
Under the previous funding formula, municipalities with populations less than 5,000 were exempt from contributing to policing costs.
The announcement included the creation of an Alberta Police Advisory Board.