Tory ticket fees hamper police when what Alberta needs is more boots on the ground
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Skyrocketing Edmonton homicide rate shows need for more officers
Edmonton – Hugh MacDonald, Alberta Liberal Critic for Solicitor General and Public Security, says that the ticket tax the Progressive Conservatives are imposing on police forces will steal resources that should be used for protecting the public and catching crooks.
Starting this fall, the government will charge a $15 administrative fee – in other words, a tax – for every ticket the police issue. This will cost Alberta’s municipal and police force budgets an estimated $24.7 million next year. According to the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police, this budget hit “is likely to result in the reduction or elimination of some services and will negatively affect public safety.”
That money should be used, MacDonald argues, for recruitment of new police officers.
“Per capita, Alberta has the second-lowest number of police officers in the country,” MacDonald says. “Police departments in our big cities need every dollar they can budget to recruit new police officers. Instead this Progressive Conservative government burdens them with a ticket tax that will drain millions out of police budgets each and every year. Edmonton now has the highest number of homicides in Canada, with over 30 so far this year. We need more officers on our streets, period.”
MacDonald says that while the government calls the $15 surcharge an administrative fee, it really amounts to a tax on police, since it costs far less than $15 per ticket to process said tickets.
“The government is trying to balance its books on the backs of police, instead of cutting wasteful spending on government communications and a bloated cabinet,” MacDonald says. “To call this an ‘administrative fee’ is a sham; a tax, by any other name, is a tax. To process a ticket, one computer sends information to another computer, a transaction that costs pennies.”
“We need a government that’s tough on crime, not one that’s tough on police,” MacDonald says.
The Alberta Liberal Caucus…There’s a better way.
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For more information contact:
Edmonton: John Santos
(780) 904-5430
Calgary: Denis LaPointe, Director, Southern Alberta Liberal Caucus Office
(403) 860-4330