The Provincial UCP Government recently announced a new program that will see more RCMP officers addressing rural crime in Alberta.

For the most part, the news has been warmly welcomed by those living in rural parts of the province, but smaller municipal governments are left asking how they're going to pay for it?

Nanton's Mayor Jennifer Handley says she feels while the program is very needed, it's also very unsustainable.

In a Facebook post made Wednesday December 4, Handley laid out what it will cost Nanton's rate payers.

"On the low end $54,247 will be imposed onto Nanton tax payers on the high end $253,148. That’s 2-8% added to our operating budget.
Downloading costs onto municipalities is not sustainable."

Handley explains adding anything onto an already stressed operating budget will be tricky.

"To add $50,000 to our operating budget next year is two per cent of our total budget. Looking three and four years out, it will climb to eight per cent of our budget being added annually."

She says right now it looks hard for the future.

"What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to find this money? Sure it looks great that they're providing these resources to our municipalities however, the big picture is that it's actually going to be downloaded onto our taxpayers because we can't manage it."

What does that mean for your property taxes if you live in Nanton, or a town like Nanton?

Handley says at first, the cost will be small.

"So this year it will probably increase on average about $45 per household but later at eight per cent we're talking closer to $200 per household."

Handley says it's not like municipalities were unaware this change was coming, as originally the plan has been in the works since the days of the NDP.

"It's not like this blindsided us, the previous government under the NDP was working with the AUMA (Alberta Urban Municipalities Association) on this, and the current UCP Government has just taken this over and reaffirmed the previous Government's position. This was not a surprise but if you add this to the reduced amount of MSI funding that our town is receiving and the increased school costs sent down from the Province, all of that is affecting our residents."

In terms of services to cut, Handley says they're running basic services in Nanton at basic levels, so there's no room there either.

Handley says she doesn't have all the solutions or the answers but she is committed to work with Council and her residents to protect Nanton's ratepayers as much as possible.

"We have to look at it from a solution based stand point. We will connect with our M.D and County Partners and other municipalities in similar size, we'll lobby our MLA and the Provincial Government saying that we simply cannot do this."

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