Resolutions

Whereas most Saskatchewan municipalities with populations under 5,000 use RCMP services contracted by the Province of Saskatchewan; and

Whereas the Province of Saskatchewan, through the Ministry of Justice, assesses a portion of the cost of this service to municipalities through The Police Act, 1990; and

Whereas the Ministry of Justice uses a two-tier system of assessing cost, in which municipalities with detachments pay a higher per capita cost than municipalities without detachments;

Therefore be it resolved that the SUMA advocate the provincial Ministry of Justice to have RCMP service costs assessed at one per capita rate for all municipalities (urban and rural) that fall under the provincial policing contract.

Background
The present per capita system, where municipalities with an RCMP detachment are charged a higher per capita rate than municipalities that do not host a detachment, was designed when RCMP members were still required to reside in their detachment municipality — which was thought to bring additional value to the municipality. The residence policy is no longer in place, making the larger per capita rate unfair for municipalities with detachments.

Implementing a single per capita charge would increase rates for municipalities without detachments by only $7.47, to reduce costs for municipalities with detachments by $19.81 per capita.