Fuchsia Dragon | [email protected]
It looks like Jasper taxpayers will be expected to help pay the bill for extra rural policing in Alberta - but see no change in police operations here.
The Government of Alberta announced on December 5 a new police funding model that 鈥渨ill inject more than $286 million over five years into frontline law enforcement鈥�.
The money will be spent on an additional 300 uniformed officers for rural detachments and specialized RCMP units across the province. An additional 200 civilian members will carry out administrative and support roles.
In a press release, the province said training planning is underway to have the first of these officers available to assist rural Albertans by fall 2020.
But where is the money coming from?
Small and rural communities.
Towns, counties, improvement districts and municipal districts with fewer than 5,000 people currently don't contribute to policing costs - that鈥檚 paid for by the province.
But that could be all about to change.
Provincial staff sent the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) preliminary estimates of the funding model鈥檚 financial impacts to municipalities.
Jasper鈥檚 policing bill is estimated to be $126,269 in year one, $189,540 in year two, $252,539 in year three, and $379,080 in years four and five.
But the municipality hasn鈥檛 heard anything official from the government yet.
鈥淲e will be made to pay into this project to fund a new policing model for rural Alberta,鈥� said Jasper鈥檚 chief administrative officer, Mark Fercho at a committee meeting Tuesday.
鈥淲e are not sure if this bill will come in 2020 or 2021. We are asking for 2021 because it is quite short notice.鈥�
$126,269 equates to about a two per cent tax increase in Jasper. As Coun. Jenna McGrath calculated, about $84 per household.
Councillors said they would like to see if this could bring Jasper more police officers during the summer when the park has thousands more visitors per day.
But Fercho said that would be a lobbying effort from council for that allocation as there is no indicated change except for rural, farm crime in Alberta.
McGrath said: 鈥淲e need to work with AUMA to have out voice heard at a provincial level for potential officers in the summer months.鈥�
Since publication, Jasper Municipal Council has received notice that it is the government's intent to bill in January 2021 for the first year of the police funding model. It will be discussed further at a future council meeting.
