Community Peace Officer Program (paying for itself?)

Community Peace Officer Program

Interesting I was reading last weeks council package and came across the following:

"The Community Peace Officer Program or any Municipal Enforcement if structured properly can be self sufficient and provide a needed service that the community rate payers expect at an affordable price.

For Example:

The City of Cold Lake AB with a population 12,000 has an enforcement division whom work collectively with the local RCMP detachment. They have three CPO's and since the inception of the CPO program three years ago they are now in 2012 experiencing additional revenue generation that will lead to self sufficiency.

The Town of Morinville AB with a population of 8,000 has two CPO's who work collectivity with the local RCMP detachment which are also experiencing the same outcome.

The City of Yellowknife NWT with a population of 20,000 who works collectively with the local RCMP detachment has 6 constables, 2 cpl, 1 manager, 1 parking constable, and two support administration personnel. They conduct the same duties and responsibilities as our CPO's. Therefore to operate this city program only $128,000 was funded by the rate payers.

The Municipality of Crowsnest Pass is no different with two CPO's who also work collectively with the Local RCMP detachment (which we do not financially compensate) compared to the other communities mention above. Our CPO program enhancement will be cost effective, efficient and we will strive towards being self sufficient".    

The comments above surprised me for one I see Cold Lake’s program which was put  into place three years ago, “they are now in 2012 experiencing additional revenue generation that will lead toward self sufficiency”. Wow, I thought this program was going to pay for itself? Maybe 5-10 years down the road.

The town of Morinville has two CPO’s (they also have about 40% more people than we do) and they “are also experiencing the same outcome”? Scary

The City of Yellowknife being compared to the Crowsnest Pass is just silly, they have a budget of close to $80 million dollars a year, and is the central hub of activity for the North West Territory.    

So being the inquisitive type of person I am I did a little bit of checking around to see how successful these other programs have been. I could only find financial information on Cold Lake.

 http://www.coldlake.com/municipal/coldlake/webcms.nsf/AllDocSearch/5FA22B2A16A95A0087257A1500736AD0/$File/2012%20op%20budget%20and%20graphs%20(internet).pdf?OpenElement

Under their budget for 2012 you can see for yourself, policing and bylaw services are “far” from paying for themselves under Police services they have a budget of $1,975,494 with revenue of $682,000 coming in. Under Animal Control/Bylaw Enforcement they have a budget of $503,967 and revenue of $60,700 coming in. I think the numbers above show “self sufficiency” being a long way down the road.

Is this what the Crowsnest Pass will face?  

Municipalities of Alberta receive a clear message from the province

Cold Lake is a municipality in Alberta that was formed a number of years back by the province bringing a number of communities together and making them into one larger municipality. (Sounds familiar?)
Over the last ten years the community as grown substantially incurring added demands on its infrastructure and making it more difficult year after year for its leaders to balance the books.
In a nut shell the communities revenue base as not grown as fast as its added burdens. While around the community are a number of Municipal Districts whose tax base as grown tremendously due to increased industrial activity but most of the people that work in those areas live in Cold Lake.
Cold Lake as attempted to gain financial assistance from those surrounding communities to assist with its growth issues a satisfactory resolve could not be achieved so in an unusual move last year the Council requested the province to dissolve their municipality and merge them into the surrounding wealthy MD problem solved, right?
The province understanding that this issue would be watched closely by many municipalities in the province, commissioned George Cuff to do a study on the sustainability of Cold Lake which he did, that report was presented to their council last week. (Available at the link below all 206 pages of it)

http://municipalaffairs.gov.ab.ca/documents/msb/ReportColdLakeFinal_30_04_10.pdf

Summed up in Layman terms with out any sugar coating the report basically says the following:

The municipality will not be dissolved, (so why would the province allow it elsewhere? addresses one of the craziest ideas I have heard around here recently)

Get along with your neighbours and try to workout an arrangement with them to share revenues if they are willing, with no legal requirement for them to assist you, (kind of like going cap in hand and hoping your neighbours will bail you out)

Improve your financial situation by raising taxes, or reducing spending. (Cutting services)

In one part of the report it talks about the wisdom of the city building a new arena when its facing serious financial difficulties.

The point of this post and I believe the message the province as just given to Cold Lake and more importantly every other community watching this situation is?
Solve your own financial problems, there is no easy way out, do not expect your neighbours or the province to do it for you.

Get your financial house in order.