By Alex McCuaig

Police funding

Police grant funding on hold

Aug 12, 2019 | 5:39 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – Half the money from two provincial funding grants for Medicine Hat and Redcliff policing are on hold, at least until after the provincial budget is passed in the fall, according to a letter sent to the municipalities by the solicitor general’s office last month.

According to the July 5, 2019 letter sent to municipalities, police services eligible for Municipal Policing Assistance Grant and the Police Officer Grant will only receive half the 2019-2020 amounts.

The balance of the funds will be, “subject to the formal budget approval this fall,“ according to the letter signed by Bill Sweeney, director of law enforcement. The letter goes on to state the provincial government is, “reviewing police funding grants as a part of examination of all aspects of the budget going forward into the future.“

“I hope MLAs understand if funding changes, the impacts filter down to us,“ said Redcliff Mayor Dwight Kilpatrick.

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Medicine Hat city councillor Darren Hirsch said it may be too early to tell what or if there will be consequences, pending the outcome of the provincial budget.

“Indirectly, it will have some relevance to the city`s budgeting process because of course there is a police grant that gets assigned but there is some allocation out of our budget with the city that goes to police,“said Hirsch. “I haven`t got to a point where we`ve been briefed in terms of the ramifications of that announcement.“

But, Hirsch added, that he expects this to be discussed during the upcoming city council meeting.

Hirsch said he believes funding, such as the police grant, is something that`s being felt across the board while the province understands its economic outlook leading into the fall budget.

“What I`m finding is that there is a holding pattern in almost all the Alberta government funding. I think they just want to get a sense of where they are at financially and they just move forward with that,“ said Hirsch.

Justice and other provincial ministries are currently operating on an interim supply budgets due to the spring election and there not having been a formal budget passed by the outgoing NDP administration.

The Municipal Assistance Grant funding amount is primarily based on a community’s population. Based on the funding formula, Medicine Hat receives approximately $1,000,000 from that grant with Redcliff receiving around $244,000. The Police Officer Grant funds the 300 Alberta-based police officers added by the province between 2008 and 2011 with up to $100,000 provided annual for each officer.