PRIME-BC Funding

WHEREAS the Police Records Information Management Environment PRIME is the provincially-approved and universally-accepted records management system for municipal police agencies and RCMP in British Columbia; AND WHEREAS the PRIME system was solely funded by the Province during implementation commencing in 2003 and, more recently, partially subsidized by the member agencies; AND WHEREAS the provincial government, through the Police Services Division, has mandated that the project become self-funding such that municipalities across BC will be required to fully fund PRIME-BC rather than partially subsidizing the overall costs through the province; AND WHEREAS this proposed provincial downloading would have significant financial implications for municipalities, including as yet unknown future costs for levies, training and upgrades; AND WHEREAS the existing governance structure of PRIME-BC provides no accountability to the member municipalities who are now being required to fund the project: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of BC Municipalities be requested to call upon the provincial government of British Columbia to pay for capital and operations costs of PRIME-BC and to review the governance structure to ensure there is effective municipal representation and accountability to the municipalities regarding the performance of PRIME.