With more than $2 million worth of traffic fine revenue having fallen into the District of Squamish’s hands in the past 13 years, local crime fighters want to know where that money’s going.
Since 1999, the provincial government has dished out grants collected from traffic tickets and court-imposed fines to communities to help pay for policing costs. In 2004, the Province boosted its Traffic Fine Revenue Sharing Program to return 100 per cent of net traffic revenue.
Last year, the district received $281,716 from the program, $176,504 more than in 2010. Overall, the municipality has received $2,251,513 since the initiative’s inception.
Sea to Sky Crime Stoppers director Larry Murray questions why the district doesn’t have enough cash to re-open Squamish’s Community Police Office (CPO). In November 2010, the volunteer-driven facility was shut down after an RCMP Department Security building review revealed security issues with the office. The upgrade bills for the building, which is being leased by the district, would come out of the local government’s pocket — money that wasn’t available at the time, Mayor Rob Kirkham told The Chief.
When it was open, the facility offered the community hundreds of free hours from volunteers working to make the town a safer place, Murray said.
“The number of volunteers far exceed anything you would want to pay for,” he said.
The Squamish RCMP detachment has been hit hard over the years, Murray added. The community lost its courthouse, forcing officers to spend time driving to North Vancouver for court appearances, and Squamish’s growth is one of the fastest in the province — with a 14.6 increase between 2006 and 2011. But the detachment’s staffing has remained stagnant, Murray noted.
“A safe community starts with a police presence,” he said.
In the traffic-fine revenue sharing program’s infancy, the grants were unconditional, Kirkham wrote in an email to The Chief. Beginning in 2009, municipalities receiving the money were required to enter an agreement and report back on how the money was used. District officials reported that they would use the money to defray the cost of local enforcement, Kirkham stated.
This year, the municipality faces close to an additional $1 million bill on policing costs because of its population growth. Until now, Squamish’s population was just below 15,000, which required the district to pay 70 per cent of the total RCMP contract with the Province pitching in the remainder. Now that it has topped 17,000, the municipality has to cover 90 per cent of policing costs. The Squamish RCMP’s $4.3 million budget makes up 26 per cent of the district’s total operating expenses.
Although the traffic fine revenue helps bring down the district’s expenses, it doesn’t aid the detachment, RCMP Staff Sgt. Guy Pollock said. The money maintains current standards rather than building on services, he noted.
“I have not been asked for any input or opinion into the value use of that money,” Pollock said.
District officials are working on a proposal outlining future options for the Community Police Office, Kirkham stated. The report will take a broad look at the issue, examining costs and whether the relocation of the office’s services to the RCMP detachment has had a negative impact.
