Flin Flon RCMP costs have soared by more than half in the last decade as city council continues to push for funding changes.
Policing is forecast to cost the City of Flin Flon $1,293,180 in 2013, a rise of $449,137 – or 53 per cent – over 2003.
Unlike many other areas of spending, council has little control over RCMP expenses, with overtime a key – and potentially costly – variable.
Moreover, the terms of the city’s current 20-year RCMP contract were negotiated by the provincial government with no Flin Flon representation at the table.
Singled out
As part of an ongoing budgetary review, Mayor George Fontaine and his council have singled out police costs as a concern.
Last year council convinced the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM), a lobby group, to push for a per-capita payment model for the RCMP.
That would potentially cut Flin Flon’s tab, but there’s no indication the Mounties are prepared to change how they charge for their services.
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Just last month, Flin Flon supported an AMM resolution urging Ottawa to renew a soon-to-expire fund that helps Manitoba communities hire and retain cops.
Flin Flon is hardly alone in seeking relief when it comes to police expenses. The AMM cities caucus, of which Flin Flon is a member, has long been sounding alarm bells around the issue.
Steinbach Mayor Chris Goertzen, chair of the caucus, told the Winnipeg Free Press that policing bills are rising because many officers are tied up in court or forced to escort mental patients.
The caucus hopes to meet with provincial Justice Minister Andrew Swan in the new year to discuss policing matters, the Free Press noted.
A Federation of Canadian Municipalities report found that policing costs across the country shot up 92 per cent – from $6.4 billion to $12.3 billion – between 1999 and 2009.
As AMM president Doug Dobrowolski told the Free Press, municipalities were stuck covering 60 per cent of that increase.
“The average officer is costing municipalities $130,000 (a year),” Dobrowolski told the newspaper, adding that he wants police agencies to create more civilian positions so officers can focus on law enforcement and not office duties.
While RCMP costs in Flin Flon are up 53 per cent over the last decade, in the prior decade – 1993 to 2003 – they went up just one per cent.
Part of the reason is that the Flin Flon detachment dropped from 12 officers to 10 in recognition of a declining community population.
There have been questions from the public, but no calls from elected officials, around further reducing the number of officers to trim costs.
In April of 1992, the Flin Flon detachment went from 14 officers to 12. In 1993, another officer was let go for a total of 11.
In June 2002, an additional position was eliminated, bringing the total number of members to 10, where it remains today.
The RCMP’s current method of billing communities has resulted in a stark disparity between Flin Flon and Creighton.
Whereas Flin Flonners will pay a projected $231 per resident for the RCMP in 2013, the amount in Creighton is just $54 – or $81,300 for the entire town.
It’s not just that Creighton is smaller and needs fewer officers than Flin Flon.
Manitoba communities currently pay for RCMP services based on which population category they fall into. A difference of just a few people can raise or drop the price tag by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A magic number is 5,000. If you have fewer than 5,000 residents, you get a pretty good deal. But if you have more, your policing tab goes up exponentially.
