North Cowichan wants to know what, if anything, the province intends to do to help it deal with the costs of the E-comm 911 service that are planned to be downloaded to the municipality in 2025.
E-Comm 911 is a multi-municipality agency that provides emergency communications operations for British Columbia.
Currently, funding for the service is split between the province (70 per cent) and the federal government (30 per cent), but 10 municipalities in south Vancouver Island, including North Cowichan, Duncan and Ladysmith recently learned that beginning on April 1, 2025, they will be expected to cover 100 per cent of the cost of the service.
Meanwhile, the province and federal governments intend to continue funding for the dispatch service in some other areas across B.C.
In North Cowichan, the downloading of the costs means the municipality will have to pay $800,000 per year for the service, beginning in 2025, for the first time, on top of the other burgeoning policing bills it is responsible for.
The mayors of North Cowichan, Duncan and Ladysmith met with Mike Farnworth, minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General and Deputy Premier, at the Union of B.C. Municipalities meeting in September and requested that the E-comm 911 costs be deferred for at least one more year while further efforts are made to ensure the equal distribution of these costs for all municipalities across B.C. that are currently not paying for the service.
They were told at the time that there would be some good news coming soon on the issue, but nothing has been announced to date, and the provincial election was held on Oct. 19.
In a letter to Farnworth, North Cowichan Mayor Rob Douglas said the issue of escalating policing costs is daunting to all municipalities in B.C.
“All municipalities are currently in the critical throes of budget discussions, and the longer it takes to decide to defer these costs, the more consequences it has for our citizens,” he said.
“As we explained at the meeting, we are facing significant increases within our protective-services budgets, and there appears to be no end to the additional costs coming down from the province for this contracted service.”
Douglas pointed out that North Cowichan is already facing increased costs based on a 6.5 per cent contractual raise for its RCMP officers, debt servicing of the region’s newly constructed $48-million RCMP detachment, future unknown costs associated with RCMP body cameras, and potential increased costs of up to $1 million per year for Island Major Crimes Unit service improvements, and now it is also expected to add on the costs of the E-comm 911 service.
“The list of these increased costs keeps growing, and it is difficult not to feel that all the south Island municipalities are at a breaking point in the reasonable affordability of this service,” he said. “At our meeting, you [Farnworth] stated that there would be good news announced by the premier at UBCM related to the E-comm 911 issue. The premier did note that there is help coming; however, there were no details provided on when or how municipalities would receive help with these costs. Now, with the election called, we're at a loss to understand when this might happen.”
Douglas said North Cowichan has also received a draft of the E-Comm Service Agreement with a deadline of Oct. 31 for response, and that would commit the municipality to a new service contract with E-comm for 911 service delivery.
He said the contract, as proposed, does not provide certainty of the costs and states it will be implemented in 2025.
“This does not appear to be consistent with the message that you and the premier provided at the UBCM,” Douglas said. “We are reaching out to get clarity on these issues as soon as possible so that we can complete our budget processes and make a decision about the contract provided to us."
A statement from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General didn’t address the issue, citing the provincial election.
“During the provincial election and interregnum period, the government is in a caretaker mode and all [government] communications are limited to critical health and public safety information, as well as statutory requirements,” the statement said.
