It’s an inevitable situation — the Town of Westlock will eventually have to start paying for RCMP costs.
And with the town’s population hovering close to the 5,000 mark— 4,823 according to the last federal census in 2011, 5,147 according to the town’s own census in 2015—that time is sooner rather than later.
Five thousand is the magic, and very arbitrary, number set by the provincial government under the Police Act — municipalities over the benchmark pay 90 per cent of policing costs, while those under don’t pay a cent.
While the town has been on the good side of the fence for some time, they knew the day they’d reach 5,000 was coming, so much so they commissioned their own census last year to have a leg-up on planning for absorbing this seven-figure expense.
That very census is what’s stirring this discussion with the department of Municipal Affairs saying only a federal census determines the town’s population, while the Solicitor General says Westlock’s population is 5,147 and the town’s on the clock with its two-year grace period set to expire April 1, 2018.
We can’t fault the town for undertaking the census — it’s to their own benefit they started planning to absorb this significant cost at the earliest opportunity. Yet it hardly seems fair that what was designed to be an unofficial tally ends up as the town’s official population and the deciding factor for a significant expense.
Plus, with the results of the 2016 federal census to be released this spring, why not wait to get official numbers? And with the economic downturn, results could mean that the town stays below 5,000.
It’s an inequitable system. How can those under the threshold pay nothing, while those over brunt the full cost of a service that benefits all Albertans?
It’s a model that creates an unequal division between large and small municipalities. One day you pay nothing, but the next you’re facing a seven-figure bill.
It seems only logical that costs to operate the RCMP province-wide are divided equally amongst all residents of Alberta for a service that benefit us all.