City council has approved in principle the $5.5 million 2024/25 budget for RCMP services in Salmon Arm.
At its June 26 meeting, council unanimously supported submitting a letter of “approval in principal” for the $5,539,794 budget, as is required by B.C.’s Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General.
Through agreements between the provincial and federal governments, the RCMP acts as provincial and local police in various B.C. municipalities. Among these agreements is the Municipal Police Unit Agreement, which states any municipality with a population over 15,000 must pay for 90 per cent of its local RCMP budget.
Only Mayor Alan Harrison offered comment, stating that “policing is expensive, so in order to keep the number of police officers we have presently, we need to pass this motion.”
The 2024/2025 RCMP budget includes an increase of $458,100 – primarily a result of increased wages, pensions and administrative costs. The budget also includes a $20,000 increase to the RCMP vehicle replacement estimate.
A staff report notes if the letter of approval in principal is not received by the province, “services could be reduced to our community due to a shortfall in funding from the Federal level to the Provincial level.”
“[Approving the budget] does mean we’re starting with a 2.18 per cent tax increase in the next budget so that’s interesting to note,” commented Harrison. The city was previously expecting a tax increase of approximately 1.05 per cent.
Read more: Police costs in 2022 make up big chunk of proposed Salmon Arm tax increase
Read more: Taxpayers in Salmon Arm to pay 4% hike mainly due to policing costs
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