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By Curtis Galbraith
Beaverlodge

Hiring more RCMP members to impact taxes in Beaverlodge says Mayor

Dec 6, 2019 | 4:30 AM

One Peace Region Mayor says hiring more RCMP members will have “quite an impact” on his community.

Beaverlodge’s Gary Rycroft says his town having to pay for 10 per cent of the cost of hiring new Mounties is equal to a 1.5 per cent increase in taxes.

“And, of course, that’s going to escalate as time goes by. Small communities don’t have a big tax base, don’t have the big industrial and what not. So, it’s a little bit more difficult for us to deal with.”

The province announced Wednesday it was hiring 300 more Mounties for rural areas, plus 200 support staff. Smaller and rural municipalities would pick up 10 percent of the cost in 2020, a share that would go to 30 per cent in 2023.

Beaverlodge has not yet finalized a budget or tax changes for 2020.

Rycroft says the town knew this was coming and staff have been looking for ways to make cuts.

“We’ll be cutting some and (there) probably, inevitably, will be a tax increase. Then, of course, we have other programs that are on the go that we need to do, so where this is going to leave us, we’re just not sure yet.”

The town still has flood mitigation work to do. A big flood hit Beaverlodge on August 1, 2018, after a huge rainstorm.

Rycroft adds Beaverlodge has needed more RCMP members “for decades.”

“The province did agree to it and the region agreed to it and the federal government did not agree to it, so we were kind of just left hanging. For years and years that’s gone on. This will be more proactive for the province to be doing it. I’m not too sure how they are going to be fit with that. Sometimes, it’s very hard to get RCMP officers.”

Rycroft says it is too soon to say how many new RCMP members might be coming to Beaverlodge.

by Curtis Galbraith