District of Squamish wants BC to increase RCMP resources and allocate them according to the growth in tourism and economic activity.
At an upcoming UBCM conference, the district will ask the province to allocate RCMP resources to different regions in BC at a rate aligned with provincial tourism and industrial activity growth and rural population increases.
The district said many regions in British Columbia were experiencing population growth and an increase in industrial and tourism activity but didn’t have the necessary public safety infrastructure for it.
BC has seen an almost 30 per cent increase in Provincial Parks and Recreation Site visits since 2014, and the parks are outside municipal boundaries.
Local municipalities have experienced increase in criminality and road safety issues with minor or no increases in Provincial RCMP police resources, district says.
This results in municipal RCMP police resources becoming the backstop to address the pressures created by provincial tourism promotion and industrial project approvals, along with population growth.
Several local governments have asked the province to increase the strength of the provincial police force.
In response, the province acknowledged that despite consistent funding increases to the provincial police force, front-line policing resources have not increased in recent years.
The provincial government has recently approved the addition of 40 new policing positions in BC.
