Mayor Karen Mattatall says she and council have never had a problem with the service they get from the RCMP.
However, the annual bill from the Mounties is another issue.
The Town of Shelburne is continuing to assess costs associated with policing services and she says they held meetings last year with the RCMP in a bid to curb those costs.
“After those discussions they did do a proposal to us which gave us a small decrease, but unfortunately that’s back, it didn’t really last.”
The town pays $736,970 annually for for 4.5 RCMP positions. That’s about 18 per cent of its overall operating budget.
Shelburne did look at an arrangement with the Bridgewater Police Service that would cost roughly $630,000 for a local detachment of the same size but Mattatall says those talks have stopped, at least for the time being.
“However nothing is ever off the table in terms of providing the best service possible for the best price. We love the RCMP but we do need to find ways to reduce those costs.”
Municipalities are no longer allowed to negotiate RCMP contracts with Ottawa, except for agreements that are grandfathered, like the one with Shelburne.
