The province has committed $550,000 annually to supplement Coaldale’s policing costs. The community is policed by RCMP and until this announcement, had to pay 100 per cent of the cost.
Minister of public safety and emergency services Mike Ellis was in town to make the announcement on April 12. He said the federal government has refused to pay a share of the RCMP cost in Coaldale.
Coaldale Mayor Jack Van Rijn emphasized the problem was not with RCMP itself and the town is happy with its police, but the problem was in the funding agreement.
“When the original contract was signed, we were treated as a new entrant so that means for a community between 5-15,000, if you are treated as a new entrant you have to pay 100 per cent of the policing costs. Whereas we have historically been policed by the RCMP, so we should have fairly been treated at the 70 per cent mark,” said Coaldale mayor Jack Van Rijn.
Coaldale had its own police force from 1954-2003, then was policed by Lethbridge Regional Police from 2004-2015. In 2015, it reentered an agreement to be policed by RCMP. The community was denied federal funding because of new entrant guidelines created in 1992.
“Coaldale has been required to pay the full amount of the policing bill for far too long. They are the only community in our country that has been forced to do this. The federal government has been petitioned multiple times to rectify this issue but have refused,” said Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter. “Today our provincial government has stepped up and done what the federal government should have done long ago — funded Coaldale’s policing needs.”