By JOHN MOORHOUSE January 8, 2008 PENTICTON HERALD
A proposal to add two more officers to Penticton‘s RCMP detachment was cut in half, as city council began its 2008 budget deliberations Monday. Faced with a proposed 5.74 per cent tax hike as outlined in the draft budget last month, council looked at supplemental budget requests not included in the draft document. Heading the list is $240,000 for the addition of two RCMP officers to increase the city‘s detachment to 47 members. The funding is on top of a $404,000 increase to the policing budget this year to cover contract and other expenses Ð including $120,000 in retroactive RCMP pension funding. The mishandling of the force‘s pension fund led to the resignation of former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli. Coun. Rory McIvor repeated his assertion that council was “blindsided” by the additional pension fund expense. He noted the RCMP is under federal jurisdiction, yet Ottawa has not come up with extra funding for the shortfall. “Why must we have to pay for their errors?” McIvor said.
Under the federal RCMP funding policy, the city must pay 90 per cent of total policing costs.In a bid to streamline costs, Coun. Garry Litke suggested the city look at hiring only one additional RCMP member this year, instead of the two members requested. Following an informal poll of council, which saw a 4-3 split on the issue, Mayor Jake Kimberley directed city staff to further investigate the impact of the reduced policing increase. “Affordability is the issue,” Kimberley said. “I wish the 400 grand (RCMP budget increase) would go away and we could easily afford this.” McIvor and councillors John Vassilaki and Randy Manuel preferred keeping an additional two members on the budget for now. Manuel said it boils down to a health and safety issue which should remain at the top of the priority list. City treasurer Doug Leahy noted council has some leeway in the overall budget. It can add about $250,000 without affecting the proposed tax increase. However, that is easily outweighed by projects on the supplemental budget list which includes $810,000 in additional operating requests and a further $1.9 million in additional capital items. Civic grants totalling more than $400,000 were also put forward.
Commenting prior to the start of budget debate, Kimberley again lamented the loss of senior government funding. He noted unconditional grants from the province have dropped from $1.5 million in 1996 to a projected $425,000 (mainly through traffic fine revenue) in 2008. The mayor said this has resulted in a severe impact on infrastructure upgrades required over the next few years. “The difficulty for most municipalities now is because of those cuts that were made in the 90s, they are now suffering the consequences,” he said. “They are coming at the forefront of every budget discussion the staff are having.” Some council members suggested the city look at downsizing or postponing the proposed $2.5 million columbarium/mausoleum at the Lakeview Cemetery. Each one per cent tax increase equals about $200,000. Budget deliberations will continue today before council makes a final decision on RCMP numbers and other budget items
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Don Quixote Note: If Penticton was blindsided by $120,000 in retroactive RCMP pension funding how much is Vernon's share . Was it included in the 2008 Budget for the RCMP that got a going over and a tentavive approval at the last budget meeting ?
Also See City residents facing tax hike a Dec 20 Posting when initially 'the city will have to pay more than $400,000 in retroactive RCMP pensions' was the potential amount.
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