WHEREAS Corrections BC has an annual budget of 4.3 million dollars per year that has a fixed quarterly budget of 1.075 million to reimburse RCMP detachments for all provincial prisoners kept in locally owned RCMP buildings; AND WHEREAS this funding allocation per prisoner fluctuates in accordance to the number of prisoners kept each quarter most recent average reimbursement of 6.63 per prisoner per hour and does not reflect the true operating cost to the local government for keeping these prisoners: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that UBCM request the Province of BC reimburse the full costs incurred in housing provincial prisoners that are held in locally owned RCMP detachment buildings.
Ministry of Public Safety Solicitor General Municipal governments are 100 responsible for the cost of operating municipal police lockups. The province is dependent on lockup beds to house adult and youth, male and female provincial prisoners where correctional facilities are not immediately accessible. As a consequence of the increased number of prisoners, the provincial prisoner rate declined on average 34 between FY 0304 and FY 0910. In the first quarter of FY 0304 the rate was 9.79 an hour, or 235 a day - in the third quarter of FY 1011 the hourly rate was 7.10 or 170.40 a day. The Province has administered Keep of Prisoners KOP since the 1970s - prior to 2002, there were no written agreements or adequate prisoner definitions. This led many municipalities to believe the province was responsible for the majority of their lockup operating costs as the historical statistics used to apportion costs were generated by an inequitable prisoner accounting method that favoured municipalities. For the last 7 years KOP has remained on budget as an effective, equitable and accountable program that operates in collaboration with police and local governments. Any reduction in municipal lockup services for provincial prisoners would place additional pressures on the justice system, including correctional centre over-capacity, prisoner per diems, transportation costsschedules, admissionsdischarges, prisoner safety, policing budgets and priorities.