Council Notes: RCMP Policing Cost Increases, Year of the Garden, Supporting Women in Politics

Langley City, like most municipalities in BC, relies on RCMP contract policing. The federal government and National Police Federation recently concluded the negotiation of their first collective agreement. This collective agreement includes significant pay increases, which go back retroactively until 2017. While Langley City has built up a policing reserve fund over the years, knowing that a collective agreement was forthcoming, this reserve fund with not cover all of the retroactive and current pay increases for RCMP members.

Like all municipalities with contract RCMP policing, Langley City has little control of policing costs beyond the number of RCMP members we would like. As a result, there will likely be a significant property tax increase in 2022 due to the new collective agreement. I’m fully supportive of collective agreements.

On Monday, Langley City Council passed the following resolution:

THAT Langley City joins the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in calling on the federal government to absorb all retroactive costs associated with the implementation of the new RCMP labour relations regime

THAT the federal government should commit to ensuring municipalities are properly consulted prior to implementation of measures that impact local fiscal sustainability and ability to maintain effective levels of police services in communities

Council also passed a motion in support of the Year of the Garden 2022, directing our Environmental Task Group “to consider developing educational flyers, promoting the environmental benefits that gardens provide to our quality of life in the city.”

Council passed another motion that Langley City apply for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’s Canadian Women in Local Leadership (CanWILL) grant to create a program that will:

1. Strengthening the capacity of women, particularly diverse women, to run for elected office
2. Creating a more conducive context for women leaders to thrive
3. Enhancing the capacity of municipal stakeholders to address gender-based violence and harassment
4. Mobilizing knowledge and sharing best practices across municipalities

In Langley City, we can be proud that the majority of our Council is women though there are still barriers preventing racialized, young, and LGBTQ2S+ women from serving in local government.