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.
Ministry of Public Safety Solicitor General Municipalities were advised as early as 2006 that the initial user fee of 500 per officer would be increased to reflect full cost recovery effective January 1, 2008. Although the Province managed to maintain the 500 user fee through 2008 and 2009, this approach was non-sustainable and did not satisfy the requirements for the system to be fully funded by user agencies. By 2010, PRIME-BC has matured, enhancements have been made and the user fee of 1,000 per officer was determined based on the current costs of operating the system. The Province appreciates the impact the fee change will have on policing budgets; however, this state of the art records management system provides unprecedented advantages to police in investigations and solving crimes as well as providing municipalities throughout British Columbia with an effective, accountable police service. PRIME-BC needs to be self sustaining; it is therefore not possible to provide additional operating funding or to postpone the user fee change. The current governance structure for PRIME-BC has many levels of accountability and all police agencies are invited to participate on regional user committees. There is also representation from police agencies on the Finance Committee, Governing Council and PRIME-BC Board of Directors. Financial information is regularly shared with all of these groups in an effort to ensure full disclosure and operational transparency. The Board of Directors of PRIMECorp has added three positions to accommodate UBCMs request for more municipal representation.