Update on the Cold Lake RCMP Expansion Project

The Cold Lake RCMP may soon have a bigger detachment. On Wednesday, the RCMP held an Open House to meet with the public and present stats and information from the past year. One item that came up was expanding the building for the members; who are, “packed like sardines,” says Cold Lake Mayor, Craig Copeland.

“Right now, we’ve funded the design,” Mayor Copeland says it’s promising that the initial steps have been taken. “There’s a firm working on it and that has to be in consultation with the Federal Government; on what the building is supposed to look like and what’s it supposed to have.” There are a lot of specifics that go into designing an RCMP detachment, explains the Mayor.

“Council’s committed to building a new building. So, it’ll be partially funded in this budget cycle and into next budget cycle.” Mayor Copeland says the City estimate the expansion project will cost $3 million.

The City also anticipates taking on a larger portion of the RCMP funding in 2017. New census numbers are expected to indicate the city is now over the 15,000 population threshold for RCMP funding. Which means, the city will jump from paying a 70-30 percent split with the government to a 90-10 percent split, with the 90 percent on the city to cover.

Mayor Copeland says this is a cost City Administration has been expecting, “it’ll be fascinating to see where our [population] is. It was during a downturn, so it’ll be interesting to see if we’re still above 15,000. If we are, and our municipal census says that, we’ll be asked to pay 90 percent of the policing costs.”

Read more about the impact the increase of policing costs may have on your taxes, Cold Lake Prepares for an Increase in Policing Costs.