A pay hike for the RCMP that's causing upset in other B.C communities has City of Kelowna officials wondering what all the fuss is about. Advance word was received by the city finance department earlier this year that police would receive a salary increase for 2012 of approximately 1.5 per cent. That information was factored months ago into the preparation of the city's budget, finance director Keith Grayston said Wednesday. "It was only an estimate at the time, but we knew an increase was coming," he said. It was disclosed by the federal Treasury Board on April 4 that RCMP members would, in fact, get a 1.75 per cent increase in pay this year. That has sparked an uproar from some local politicians in B.C., who say they weren't advised of that increase and similar ones to come in the next few years, before they agreed to a new 20-year policing contract with the RCMP. The difference between the already-budgeted 1.5 per cent pay raise and the 1.75 per cent RCMP members will actually get this year amounts, in Kelowna's case, to $40,000. That's a negligible sum measured against the city's overall operating budget of more than $90 million, and won't force significant change to this year's financial documents, Grayston said.
The estimate on the likely size of the police pay increase this year was sent to the City of Kelowna by E Division, the section that oversees all policing in B.C. Grayston believes the same information would have been shared with all other communities policed by the RCMP, so politicians in those towns and cities should have been aware of at least a 1.5 per cent increase in policing costs for 2012. A much bigger concern for Kelowna - and presumably for all other communities across Canada served by the RCMP - is a pending decision by the Federal Court that also relates to policing costs. In 2009, the RCMP was awarded a pay increase of 3.5 per cent, but that was subsequently rolled back by Treasury Board to 1.5 per cent. An association representing the police has been fighting the issue in court ever since, trying to get the original raise re-instated. The Federal Court heard arguments in mid-January, but has not yet released its decision, Grayston said. If the judgment goes in favour of the police association, all municipalities served by the force will have to come up with extra money to cover the back wages. "We're anticipating the police will be successful because they've won all the lower court judgments so far," Grayston said. City of Kelowna finance staff have calculated that impact of that possible outcome to be approximately $1 million for 2012, which would translate into a municipal tax increase of just over one per cent. In January, city council approved a 2012 budget that called for essentially no change in the municipal tax rate for Kelowna property owners.
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Don Quixote Note: Vernon like Kelowna anticipated the salary adjustment within the 2012 budget. An additional $303,700 is included in the 2012 Vernon budget for the Increase in RCMP Manpower Contract. (see p. 9 & 114 of 2012-2016 Financial Plan - 64.60MB
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