Mayor Lorne Fisher puts blame squarely at the feet of former solicitor general John Les
By Paul J. Henderson, The Times June 8, 2010
District of Kent residents received a tax hike this year in part thanks to their incarcerated neighbours.
A recount of the 2006 census found 470 extra residents--although no new dwellings--and this put Kent over the critical 5,000-population threshold at which policing costs shift.
But those "residents" are in the two federal prisons, Kent and Mountain, so they don't add a lot to the community, according to Mayor Lorne Fisher.
In B.C., communities under 5,000 pay for 15 per cent of policing costs while those over 5,000 pay 70 per cent.
The original census counted 4,738 in Kent but the revised count put that number at 5,208. In every other B.C. community where there was a recount, there was an amended number of private dwellings, but not in Kent. Statistics Canada did not respond to calls to explain the changes before going to press.
Kent's director of finance Glen Savard said the district was told that the reason the numbers jumped over 5,000 was the inclusion of the prison population.
And while Statistics Canada is the federal body that conducts the census, Fisher blames the provincial Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General for the downloading of policing costs in this way.
"This goes back to when John Les was still solicitor general," Fisher told the Times. "He recommended there should be a revised count and all of a sudden the revised count showed up to 5,200 or something. I've always blamed John for doing this to us."
Les says blaming him is "nonsense."
"It's important to know that the census is a federal function and it has always been federal policy to include inmate numbers in the population of the communities where the facilities are located," he told the Times via e-mail. "That the population of Kent is now well over 5,000 cannot be a surprise to anyone, least of all the mayor. . . . With any prudence at all they would have seen this day coming. The rate of contribution to policing at that population level has been in place for many years.
"Any suggestion that I somehow revised the census numbers is nonsense."
Fisher said they did know it was only a matter of time before the population went over 5,000, but "the way it seemed to happen got our hackles up."
The district fought the change for the last three years, but seems to have lost the battle and the mayor is resigned to the new costs. A one-time $300,000 grant will defer some of the costs, according to Savard, but last week residents will have begun receiving property tax bills with a six per cent increase, half of which is for local infrastructure costs and half of which is to pay for the $615,000 policing bill. Before the population adjustment policing costs were $165,000.
Fisher said he is not against the prisons being located in Kent per se as they pay a substantial grant in-lieu of taxes, but most employees aren't local and commute from outside of the community.
© Copyright (c) Chilliwack Times
Read more: Chilliwack
****************************************************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment