Budget 2020 Deliberations, Day 2
Council Committee of the Whole met today for its second day deliberating Budget 2020. We still have one more day to go.
Yesterday, I wrote a blog post outlining the first day of deliberations: you can find it here.
If you haven’t seen them already, you may also be interested in the blog posts I wrote leading up to budget deliberations. The are about:
How provincial and federal decisions will cost the City millions in 2020
Where tax rates have gone this term and my priorities for 2020
How the City is working to be more efficient and target money better
Following is what was discussed today. As always, all mistakes and opinions belong to me and me alone, not to City Council or staff.
CITY vs PROVINCIAL POLICE FUNDING
The most important item of discussion (in my mind) had to do with Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT). These are multi-agency police teams that work across the province to undertake complex and large scale operations. Historically, there have been 14 officers dedicated to ALERT in Northwestern Alberta. These teams are responsible for an area as far south as Edson all the way north to High Level and beyond. 5 of their officers have been funded by the City of Grande Prairie and 9 have been funded by the province.
I made a motion, which passed, to remove 3 of the City funded ALERT positions and re-allocate that funding towards municipal positions. In other words: we’re moving three of our RCMP members out of regional work to have them stay within the City. Additionally, the budget allocates funding for 2 additional RCMP members. That means that our local detachment will grow by 5 officers in 2020.
This was a hard conversation for me. ALERT does very good and very important work. And its efforts bring great benefit to City residents. However, pulling back the resources we put into it is the right thing to do for the following reasons:
The City of Grande Prairie is the only municipality in our region which contributes to the program. We need to limit to what degree we voluntarily subsidize services to residents across the region. After all, the province requires us to subsidize them in a variety of other ways.
Compared to other mid-sized Alberta cities which contribute to ALERT, Grande Prairie had the highest percentage of its police force dedicated to this provincial effort.
One benefit of ALERT is that it allows officers from different police forces to work together. It’s an important coordination tool. This isn’t as beneficial in our region, where the only police are RCMP.
The province has significant properties within the City that serve hundreds of thousands of non-City residents (hospitals, GPRC, the court house, etc…). The City is required to provide them with services such as roads, police, and fire. The province has never paid the City enough money to cover these services. And in its budget, it reduced what it is paying by 50%. ALERT is ultimately a provincial service. And if the province is going to pay the City less, it is appropriate for the City to provide the province with less service.
RCMP costs are going up by over $2,000,000 in 2020. Additionally, the province is retaining over $800,000 in fine revenue which goes to the City’s policing budget, meaning that tax payers will need to pay even more for RCMP. This means that next year, our police will cost taxpayers over 15% more than they did in 2019. Since costs are going up by so much, Council needs to ensure City taxpayers are getting the best possible value. That is aided by keeping more of our members in City limits.
Something that is worth noting: I’ve already shared with our MLA that I hope the province will fill in the ALERT positions the City is no longer funding. I hope residents will express this same desire to our provincial government. Reasons why I believe this is appropriate:
Since ALERT serves the entire region, not any one municipality, it is appropriate for it to be paid for by the province
This decision by the City will remove $480,000 of funding from ALERT. At the same time, the province is removing over $800,000 in fine revenue from the City. The legislation that allows the province to do this specifically highlights that a purpose of the revenue it is taking is to “support or improve the administration of justice.” ALERT is an appropriate place to place those funds.
The provincial government has also introduced legislation to collect money from municipalities, such as the County and our other regional neighbours, whose general policing is currently fully paid for by the province. One potential funding model the province has proposed would see it generate over $126,000,000 in revenue. It has promised that all money collected for policing will be put into rural policing. ALERT is an appropriate place for this money to be spent.
Other highlights of the day include:
Council discussed a few more recommended reductions. It ended up approving ~$209,000 in additional removals from the operating budget.
Council discussed and endorsed the 8 new staff positions that will be created in 2019. Most of these positions reflect an effort in the City to centralize corporate services. Instead of having some functions (such as communications or budget preparation) being performed off the side of the desk by many people in many departments, they are being performed for various department by a central staff resource who can bring more attention, more experience, and a more coordinated approach to these jobs. Most of the new positions involved hiring these central resources. The one I’m most excited about: an Engagement Officer to ensure we are giving citizens great opportunity to provide input to the City. Worth noting: while the administration proposed budget creates 8 new positions, it also removes 39: it has a net reduction of 31 jobs within the City.
Council discussed and made some changes to the 2020 Capital Budget. The most interesting item here: a proposal to create a glass wall in the Teresa Sargent Hall to create separation between it and the entrance/thorough fair between the Art Gallery and Mamawe Concourse. Council felt this needs more discussion. The project was left in the capital budget, but administration was directed to bring more information about it to Council before going ahead with construction.
That’s what was discussed today.
Tomorrow, we’ll be discussing items that were referred to budget deliberations by Council, including Phase 4 of the Downtown Rehabilitation. We’ll also be setting targets for the 2020 tax increase and reserve increases.
Thanks for reading!
-Dylan