The Town of Banff is in the red to the tune of $193,389 for the first three months of 2011, in large part because of a major cut in funding from the Alberta government for police services.
There have been savings in some areas, such as $221,000 in staff wages and benefits, but there is a $225,946 forecasted deficit in the police services department.
On June 13, the municipality’s finance committee recommended transferring $255,946 from the budget stabilization fund to cover the projected deficit for police services.
But Councillor Stavros Karlos was quick to take a sharp jab at the province.
“The province is gutting police services and reneging on a previous agreement,” he said.
Kelly Gibson, the Town’s corporate services manager, said the largest variance in the first quarter forecast relates to a major change in the net funding received from the province for police services.
“At budget time, we were in the process of negotiating with the province,” he said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t know the full scope of the change in funding at that time and now we’re seeing the full extent of that.”
Banff’s finance committee is made up solely of mayor and council, but the issue still has to come to a council meeting for an official stamp of approval.
Following lengthy negotiations, the Town of Banff and Alberta’s Solicitor General’s office signed a three-contract earlier this year that sees the province fund four positions, instead of the historical seven.
For its part, the municipality will now cover the costs of one more member, bringing the total number of positions funded by the Town of Banff from 11 to 12.
Even though the detachment has had trouble filling some positions in recent times, that still leaves the detachment two short of historical policing levels.
Cities and towns in Alberta with a population over 5,000 must provide their own police service. Most commonly, they contract an existing service such as the RCMP.
In Banff’s case, the province agreed to provide funding to cover costs for an additional seven Mounties, on top of what the municipality was paying for, when Banff was incorporated in 1990.
It was in recognition of Banff’s unique circumstances as a resort town, which serves 8,800 permanent residents, plus a large transient population and close to 3.1 million visitors a year.
On a positive note, in the first quarter financial statements there have been savings in wages and benefits.
Administration has identified savings of more than $221,000 for the year, exceeding council’s request of $110,000 in cuts.
Mayor Karen Sorensen thanked administration and staff for all their efforts so far.
“We’ll see how it looks in the end,” she said.
