Wednesday, April 27, 2022 – The District of Sooke is sharing this release alongside Colwood, Duncan, Ladysmith, Langford, North Cowichan, North Saanich, Sidney, Sooke and View Royal:
Nine southern Vancouver Island municipalities received good news from the Province regarding downloaded E-Comm 9-1-1 dispatch funding.
A letter from Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General dated April 26, confirms that 100 per cent of police call taking and dispatch services will be funded by the Province until March 31, 2025. The municipalities made a request for this transition funding last December, after an announcement that the $3.59 million in dispatch costs previously covered by the federal and provincial governments would be downloaded to member municipalities beginning in 2022.
For the impacted municipalities (Colwood, Duncan, Ladysmith, Langford, North Cowichan, North Saanich, Sidney, Sooke, and View Royal) these additional costs would have had an enormous impact on local property taxes, in addition to the additional costs related to the new RCMP contract. The City of Duncan is now included with the original eight municipalities, as Duncan’s population topped 5,000 with the latest census data, which now puts their population over the threshold for cost sharing.
The three-year reprieve will allow the municipalities the opportunity to budget for the financial impact, as well as time to absorb the current impact of the new RCMP contract.
The municipalities would like to thank Minister Farnworth for his attention to this matter, and look forward to additional cost sharing measures that may be contained in the report of the Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act later this spring.