The County of Vermilion River is raising concerns about two rising costs pressuring rural municipal budgets: RCMP funding and replacing fire apparatus.

Councillor Clinton Murray recently joined representatives from neighbouring municipalities for a meeting with Alberta Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis during the Alberta Municipalities Convention. The discussion focused on Fire Underwriters Survey (FUS) ratings and municipal policing costs.

For the County, the numbers show how quickly those costs are climbing.

The County says its RCMP contribution is projected to rise from approximately $756,000 in 2026 to $892,000 in 2027. In 2022, the cost was $337,509.

That represents an increase of more than $550,000 in five years if the 2027 projection is realized.

The County says policing costs have increasingly been passed from senior levels of government to municipalities, creating additional pressure on local budgets. The County’s website confirms policing is one of the provincial costs collected through local property taxation.

Fire protection comes with another financial challenge.

The insurance industry uses FUS ratings to assess the fire protection available in a community. The County says factors considered in those ratings include the age of fire apparatus, meaning an older truck can affect a municipality’s rating even when it has low kilometres and remains in excellent operating condition.

That leaves municipalities balancing the high cost of replacing functional fire trucks against maintaining fire protection ratings that can affect property insurance costs for residents and businesses.

The County says the price of new apparatus keeps rising, requiring municipalities to plan major equipment purchases years in advance.

Together, the County says these pressures can leave councils facing difficult choices during budget deliberations — including whether to increase property taxes or reduce spending elsewhere to maintain stable tax rates.

Property taxation currently accounts for about 79 percent of the County’s 2026 revenue, and Council sets its annual budget based on service levels and municipal priorities.

Murray’s meeting with Ellis included representatives from the City of Lloydminster, Town of Vermilion and Village of Mannville, as well as Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright MLA Garth Rowswell.

The County says working alongside neighbouring municipalities gives the region a stronger collective voice when advocating to the provincial government about financial pressures facing local governments.