The big unknown during North Battleford’s recent budget deliberations is what the future holds for the City’s share of the RCMP contract.
According to their current agreement, the City’s cost share for the RCMP amounts to 70 per cent, with the federal government picking up the tab for the other 30 per cent.
But that cost-share applies to communities that have populations between 5,000 and 15,000. For communities over 15,000, the municipality’s cost share is 90 per cent, with the government on the hook for the other 10 per cent.
City officials have nervously circled Feb. 8 on the calendar. That is the date the 2016 census population figures will become known.
In the 2011 census, North Battleford’s population was 13,888. A gain of just 1,112 residents would be enough to trigger the automatic change to the RCMP contract to 90 per cent.
That was something on the minds of councillors during the final budget deliberation session last Wednesday night at City Hall.
Director of Finance David Gillan laid out the implications if the city hits that magic number.
A jump from 70 to 90 per cent would amount to a $1,000,000 additional cost annually. Gillan noted, however, the earliest the contract change would impact the city would be April 1, which is the start of the RCMP fiscal year.
“If it happened, we would start paying that extra cost April 1,” said Gillan.
The first three months would be paid under the old formula, which means the overall net increase faced 2017 would potentially be around $800,000.
That $800,000 number is not part of the 2017 budget calculation, but it’s one Gillan said they needed to take note of.
“It’s an unknown,” said Gillan of the figure. “But we can’t just ignore it.”
But if the census numbers came in over 15,000, Gillan said council would need to reconvene in February and revisit the budget.
“Long before we set our mill rates, long before taxation goes out, we might have to revisit this budget and say, what are we going to do if it happens, because obviously we can’t just change our contract with the RCMP in a month,” said Gillan.
“It takes long-term negotiations and discussions if we want to go down that road. We need to look at the costs that’s going to generate at the end of that contract, at least in the short term, which is at least one year. The RCMP contract has got a year term of discussion.”
The indication from officials Wednesday was that the City would also have to foot the bill for additional capital costs if they hit the 90-10 split.
Gillan noted Swift Current had moved to that formula after the last census and he was told they were “surprised” by some of the capital requests for cars, guns and other items.
He said a reserve of around $200,000 has already been set up to deal with that.
“That cost could hit us as well,” said Gillan.
City officials at the meeting noted it wasn’t all bad news if the population did hit 15,000. The city would be in line for more money under provincial revenue sharing, which is tied to population.
That could offset some of the additional costs, but clearly not the majority of them.
Another possibility Gillan offered was perhaps to negotiate for more policing money from the province. Currently, the City receives an annual grant from the province going towards “targeted police initiatives.”
Their latest grant of $770,000 was announced in November.
As for what could be done if the census did show North Battleford over the magic 15,000 number, Gillan assured councillors a number of options were available.
“It’s not just taxation. It’s also cost reduction,” he said. “It could be a combination of both.”
That could involve revisiting the capital budget. In any event, Gillan made clear the options were not limited to taxation.
City Manager Jim Puffalt admitted the census was still an unknown, but had some reassuring words. According to their own best estimates it looked as if North Battleford would come in at around 14,500, “not showing 15,000,” he said.
“Until those figures come out, we don’t know for sure,” said Puffalt.
Following the final deliberation session Wednesday, Puffalt met with reporters and addressed questions on another possible option that has been floated in the community in recent years.
That is the idea of switching from the RCMP contract to a municipal police force, something some other Saskatchewan communities currently have in place.
But Puffalt noted there isn't a lot of cost-savings to be had. He pointed to his own previous experience as city manager in Estevan, which has a municipal police force.
“Really, the costing comes out to be about the same,” said Puffalt. “And at 70/30 we’re actually probably ahead of the game.”
He acknowledged it would be tougher with a 90/10 cost-share split, but noted that even with a municipal force “you’re paying the same amount per officer, basically.”
Plus, there would be no cost-share from the feds, and additional infrastructure costs.
“You have to have your own infrastructure in place. There’s no SWAT team from Saskatoon coming to help you,” said Puffalt, referring to something currently available with the RCMP contract.
“We’d have to have our own SWAT team, our own dogs, our own GIS, our own major crimes investigation unit.”
A municipal force would also be a completely different structure of organization.
“When it’s a municipal police force they’re not accountable to city council,” said Puffalt. “I mean, that’s a separate organization altogether, they have their own board of commissioners, police commissioners, they have their own legislation. And when it comes to budget-wise, council has to basically approve the budget as a whole, they’re not even allowed to go through it. That tries to respect the autonomy of a municipal police, the same as you would with the RCMP.”
Puffalt did say switching to a municipal force “could be done” but made clear it would be a major undertaking. It would involve not only hiring officers but also creating the whole infrastructure around it, including office and payroll functions.
“You’ve just got to do the whole thing. It’s starting from scratch,” Puffalt said.
