Mayerthorpe grapples with police funding after Alberta raises municipal contributions

Councillors from the small Alberta town of Mayerthorpe are sounding the alarm about the province’s changes to police funding which is set to increase their bill by 320 per cent in just five years.

Home to 1,300 people, Mayerthorpe is known to many for the tragedy, in which, four mounties were shot and killed in 2005. More than two decades later, the small town is grappling with how to fund their police detachment.

“I think it was complete and utter shock and disbelief. How can we afford this cost?” said Rebecca Wells, Mayerthorpe’s deputy mayor.

Wells worries the town and its taxpayers cannot afford that.

“We need to still sustain infrastructure, all those kinds of things and how do we do this? And that may mean that the taxpayer may have to pay more money,” Wells said.

The changes are part of a police funding model recalculation introduced by the Alberta government last month. The small town’s portion of the bill will be being gradually increased from 22 per cent to 30 per cent.

This could mean that property tax bills will likely be going up in many rural communities – not just Mayerthorpe.

“I’m really offended by that. Really offended,” said Mayerthorpe resident Margaret Thibault.

“The police are a very important part of this community, any small community,” added Thibault, who worked at the RCMP detachment in town for many years.

Thibault said the province should cancel the referendum votes and instead use the money for rural policing.

“It’s completely unacceptable that the province would ask the town to pay more money,” Thibault said.

Alberta NDP says this was part of a pattern where the UCP was passing cost increases onto Albertans through municipal tax bills.

The UCP government is also moving toward a provincial police force.

David Shepherd, Alberta NDP’s emergency services shadow minister, said that many local leaders have opposed the move.

“All of the sudden we are getting these bills dropped on municipalities in February, two months after they’ve done their budgets. So this is not what a competent and collaborative government looks like. This is not how you work respectfully with your municipal partners.” Shepherd said.

Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis declined an interview with CityNews but sent a statement through his office.

“The real driver of the projected increase is a 57 per cent cost hike from the contract service provider which is the RCMP. Alberta’s government is not increasing the cost of policing.”

Mayerthorpe officials said they will meet with Ellis on March 16 to try to find solutions.

Note: A previous version of the article mentioned that the Alberta cut the municipal police funding in the headline. It is incorrect. The province raised contributions by municipalities. The error has been fixed.

— With files from Sean Amato