Province rewrites the rural policing grant, and the counties do the math
The new formula weighs road kilometres instead of population. For counties with more grid than people, that changes everything.
STETTLER — The province quietly posted the new rural policing cost-share formula on Friday, and county administrators spent the weekend running their own numbers before anyone at the legislature could run them first.
The old grant divided costs by population, which rural municipalities have argued for a decade punishes exactly the places policing is hardest: more territory, fewer taxpayers. The new formula weights patrol area and road kilometres at forty per cent.
For Stettler County the early arithmetic lands about $210,000 a year better off. For the Special Areas, which have more grid road than some provinces, the swing is larger — though the board is not celebrating until it sees the transition schedule, which phases in over four years.
Two administrators, who asked not to be named because the file is still before their councils, said the same thing in different words: the formula is fairer, and fairness that arrives in year four is a promise, not a payment.
