WHEREAS the provincial government has determined that there are inequities between the amount paid for policing by communities with a population under 5,000 and those with a population over 5,000; AND WHEREAS the provincial government has asked that each local government think outside the box when formulating suggestions for a new policing formula; AND WHEREAS it is anticipated that 4.8 million in revenue will be generated in the East and West Kootenays alone from traffic violations: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the provincial government be requested to look at a formula that would see traffic violation revenues returned to each local government to offset its costs of policing.
MINISTRY OF COMMUNITY, ABORIGINAL AND WOMENS SERVICES Returning traffic fines to their jurisdiction of origin would be administratively complex and would exacerbate the existing cost inequities between communities above and below the 5,000 population mark. The Traffic Fine Revenue Sharing program TFRS distributes traffic fine revenues to individual municipalities that pay for policing based on the share of total policing costs paid by each municipality. Under this formula, which has been used since 1999, the municipalities which bear the greatest burden of police costs receive the greatest support through this program, while municipalities that bear little to no costs for policing do not receive a portion of traffic fine revenues. The Ministry has no intention of changing this distribution formula. At Convention, the Premier announced a move to 100 traffic fine revenue sharing beginning in 200405. 10 million was distributed to municipalities in the spring and on October 22, 2004, the province returned the balance of 100 of net traffic fine revenues collected in 200203 to municipalities that pay for policing. This provided the municipalities with an additional 31.8 million, on top of the previous 10 million program, for 2004.