ATHABASCA — Athabasca County councillors defeated a motion via a tied vote to include a contingency fund with an estimated dollar amount for budgeting purposes to cover retroactive RCMP pay increases the county may be billed for in the spring.
During the Nov. 2 budget and finance meeting, councillors voted 4-4 — Coun. Gary Cromwell was absent — on a motion to direct administration to add last year’s RCMP retroactive pay increase figure plus five per cent to the budget in lieu of the actual dollar amount that will be available in spring 2024.
Councilors Tracy Holland, Kelly Chamzuk, Joe Gerlach, and Rob Minns voted in favour of the motion, while Reeve Brian Hall and councillors Ashtin Anderson, Natasha Kapitaniuk, and Camille Wallach were opposed. Tied motions are automatically defeated as per the regulations laid out in the Municipal Governance Act. A motion to accept the report as information was carried 6-2, with councillors Anderson and Holland opposed.
“We should have it in our budget so we also look prepared,” said Holland, who put the motion on the floor. “To leave it out of the budget I think is more detrimental to our public eye.”
In 2021, the National Police Federation, the RCMP’s union, reached a historic deal with the Treasury Board of Canada — one that granted raises to almost 20,000 members of the force across the country retroactively dated back to 2017. Last year’s dollar amount for retroactive pay was not available prior to publication.
Athabasca County receives RCMP services through the province’s Police Services Agreement (PSA) and the discussion report submitted by director of corporate services Nicole Cherniwchan states Rural Municipalities of Alberta has noted any retroactive costs would be covered by the provincial government in accordance with the contract.
According to the RCMP’s website, eight provinces, three territories, and around 150 municipalities across the country have PSA’s with the Mounties. Provinces and territories with contracts pay 70 per cent of RCMP costs, with the other 30 covered by the federal government. Municipalities with direct contracts and populations under 15,000 — Athabasca County had under 7,000 residents in 2021 — pay the same amount as provinces, 70 per cent.
Although the county’s contract is through the province, Cherniwchan’s report advised erring on the side of caution and budgeting a contingency of $80,000 to cover the 20 per cent salary increase if the county is responsible for the bill.
“Could we also consider not putting a figure in (the budget)?” asked Hall. “This is a number we don’t know, it’s a number we’ve had no input on, and I’d be perfectly happy to do a special assessment after the fact.”
Hall suggested the county send out “a second tax notice in the year, specifically for this one single item, so our ratepayers will know exactly what kind of garbage the federal government is dumping on them.”
Further councillor discussion circled around the dollar amount allocated to the suggested contingency. “I don’t agree with charging a ‘guestimate,’ for that specific line item, it’s something we would be invoiced for, and that cost would then be passed onto our ratepayers,” said Anderson.
“It just doesn’t sit right to put something in and either raise taxes to cover that amount or send out a second notice until we have the exact amount we actually need. We don’t want to come up short and we also don’t want to overcharge,” she added.
“Budgets are just that, they’re estimates in quite a few areas,” said Holland. “If we are going to arbitrarily leave it off because we're not positive — we’re not positive on what any of these charges are going to be, they’re a budget. We need to show that we’re prepared for it, we’re aware of it, we know what’s happening.”
Holland proffered a suggestion of a letter from administration listing council’s concerns around the “unfairness” of the retroactive costs, while Hall suggested planning an adequate reserve contribution to cover the potential expense.
“We obviously have to plan to pay this bill if it comes our way,” said Hall. “As long as our budgeting process isn’t to spend every last dollar, which it hasn’t been, leave it in reserves.”
