District of Squamish to pay out more than $700k to RCMP

The District will be paying the RCMP $714,000, marking the end of a dispute between municipalities and the federal government on how to split the policing bill.

The payments are part of an agreed-upon settlement between the provincial government — bargaining on behalf of municipalities — and the federal government, which have had opposing views on how much each party would pay for several items.

These disagreements date back to 2009, and while the dispute was ongoing, the District at least partially withheld payments to RCMP for the items in question — the costs of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, or IHIT; the costs of the Surrey headquarters; and the costs of police severance or retirement payments.

Council voted unanimously in favour of making the payments on Dec. 7.

“The District continued to set aside reasonable provisions while senior levels of government worked to resolve these issues. Now that there is certainty and a settlement agreement in place, we are in a position to move forward with the payment of these funds,” said Mayor Karen Elliott in a written statement to The Chief.

Several elected officials noted during their meeting the municipality was banking rainy-day funds in case it needed to pay the money owed. These provisions would allow the District to pay the amount without raising taxes.

A municipal staff report says there is $2 million in its protective services provisional fund, which will be enough to cover the payments.

Former mayor Patricia Heintzman also expressed relief that the clash was over, as at least some of these issues had dogged the municipality back when she was in office.

"I do think it's good that it's resolved. I don't have the details of what the decision was, so I don't know if ...I would agree with the outcome, but I suspect it was a long, drawn-out process and lots of back and forth, and so, at some point, you pay the bill and move on," Heintzman told The Chief.

"But, generally, I'm glad it's resolved, because otherwise you just have money sitting there, anticipating this potential outcome. It would've been nice to take that [$714,000] and put it to something else, but we always knew there was a possibility that it would go in this direction and that's why the funds were set up in the beginning."

As part of the deal, the District will be paying $143,123 to homicide investigators; $208,551 to Surrey headquarters; and $361,964 to the RCMP earned retirement benefit over 13 years;

The payment to the homicide team follows an argument over the service’s cost-sharing formula.

Before the 2012 Police Service Agreements were finalized, Public Safety Canada supported a 70-30 cost-sharing agreement for integrated teams, with IHIT being among them, said a District spokesperson.

Integrated teams are made from a combination of police forces from different municipalities and are used in high-stakes investigations involving cases such as homicides, gangs, and sexual predation.

Under this agreement, municipalities would pay 70% of the cost and the federal government would take care of the rest.

Public Safety Canada backed away from this deal, and, instead, a 90-10 cost-sharing ratio was put forward for communities policed by RCMP, according to the District.

As a result, several local governments balked at the idea, and some, along with the District of Squamish, followed suit by withholding the extra 20%.

Under the newly-minted settlement agreement, the province and federal government have agreed to a 70-30 cost-share, and IHIT is now included as part of the RCMP Protective Services.

The dispute around the RCMP headquarters at Green Timbers Way centred around whether the building was classified as either new or existing, according to the District.

The federal government previously asked the municipalities to pay extra for headquarter expenses, which wouldn’t be needed if it was an “existing” building.

The settlement agreement, according to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, or UBCM, would have local governments pay a compromised building cost; more than would be expected if Green Timbers was considered existing, but less than if it was considered new.

Finally, the last dispute revolved around severance pay — essentially, earned retirement benefits.

The federal government began eliminating severance pay in 2011. In its place, federal employees received a one-time 0.75% salary bump, according to a UBCM report.

Local governments were then told that RCMP members would stop accumulating severance pay for voluntary resignations and retirements as of March 31, 2012.

At the time, contract partners would be required to pay all accumulated severance earned before that date, the UBCM report said.

This initiative made municipalities fear they’d suddenly have to issue a slew of lump-sum payments.

However, under the settlement, there will be a 12-year interest-free amortization period for local governments, ending in 2032 when the current Police Service Agreements expire.

RCMP members who voluntarily resign or retire with less than 10 years of service will not be paid out for any earned retirement benefits.