It looks unlikely North Battleford will receive provincial funding to be one of two new Centres of Responsibility this year.
Funding for two new CORs had been set aside in the provincial budget in the spring, and the hope was North Battleford would be one of them.
That would have complemented the HUB currently in place and would have focused more on longer term goals towards a healthy and safe community, beyond the shorter-term solutions the HUB offers.
But City Manager Jim Puffalt said Monday that based on their research and discussions with provincial officials, that is not likely to happen.
"As far as we know, we're not getting a Centre of Responsibility," Puffalt told reporters.
He said provincial officials were "still working on where that funding is going towards. It's quite disheartening to be honest with you. But we can't wait for the province to spend the money. We have to go forward."
On that note, the City has decided to proceed on its own initiative by funding a six-month contract for a community program co-ordinator.
That role will provide for need and gap assessments, support to the HUB steering committee and project development.
One of the projects contemplated would be a new homeless shelter, which Puffalt called foremost in people's minds. The Battlefords Indian and Métis Friendship Centre have indicated they will not continue to operate their temporary homeless centre next winter, so the idea is to find funding and get something else up and running.
"It's a scary proposition not to have a shelter," said Puffalt.
The recommendation comes jointly from Mayor Ian Hamilton, Insp. John Sutherland of the RCMP, and from Puffalt, who presented the recommendation to council Monday.
He emphasized the city needs to take a proactive approach on the crime issue.
"We cannot wait until the province figures out what they're doing with the funding in the budget," said Puffalt. "It's important we don't lose our momentum that we've gained in crime prevention."
The co-ordinator would be retained for a six-month term contract of $30,000 plus an additional $3,000 for travel and research expenses. The amount for the contract is covered by funds reallocated from a project engineer position in Public Works that is not expected to be filled until September.
Puffalt told reporters the intention is for the contract to begin as soon as someone is found.
The hope is to obtain further funding from the Province and move the contract to a full-time position once it is over. Puffalt also told council that the City plans to continue working with the Province and encourage them to provide funding.
Council unanimously passed a resolution to create the community program co-ordinator position Monday night, but not before some tough words were aimed at the provincial government by councillor Ryan Bater, who made clear he preferred a COR in the city instead.
"The idea that the province is unlikely to fund, unlikely to locate a Centre of Responsibility here is disappointing and unacceptable to me, and to most of us, especially most of us living here. We've said time and time again, the province needs to be here, this is a regional issue, this is a provincial issue," said Bater.
"I also don't like the idea of sitting around waiting for Regina to get it, because we might be waiting for a long time. So if this is something that we can do as a city to proactively start to quantify the need for more assistance, to me that's what this is, I'll support it. But I think people need to start letting the provincial representatives know that the need is here. I mean, the stats show it every year, they showed it last year. We're number one (crime severity index). You can't get higher than number one, so something has to be done."
On a related note, the needs of the RCMP also came up at the meeting. Earlier, council received correspondence from RCMP F Division that indicated 18 more positions were needed at the North Battleford detachment.
This is the second year in a row council received such a recommendation from the RCMP.
The cost of funding that increase, however, is prohibitive. According to the RCMP the projected cost of one police officer is $107,403. Bater pointed out hiring 18 more officers would cost the City nearly $2 million.
Another looming headache for the City is the upcoming 2016 census. North Battleford's cost share of the RCMP police contract would go up from 70 to 90 per cent if the population hits 15,000. Puffalt believes it is a foregone conclusion the city will be over that figure by the next census.
In speaking to reporters, Puffalt made the point that hiring additional police officers would only address the "symptoms," when addressing the cause of the crime problems was also what was needed. Whatever could be done to prevent crime and do something effective in the community would be a "great step forward" to reduce the need for more officers, he told reporters.
"We can throw a hundred more officers, but if we don't try and deal with what's causing the issue we're never going to get anywhere," said Puffalt.
