WHEREAS the Province of British Columbia has legislation that requires the forwarding of a pro rata share of traffic fine revenue to each incorporated municipality within the province, whether served by a local municipal police force or the RCMP; AND WHEREAS local government in British Columbia is made up of electoral areas within regional districts as well as municipalities, and the taxpayers within the electoral areas pay the RCMP policing costs through the provincial Rural Tax Levy but, unlike municipalities, the electoral areas do not currently receive a pro rata share of traffic fine revenue: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Province of British Columbia be requested to treat electoral areas in a fair and equitable manner consistent with that accorded to municipalities and to annually forward to the regional districts their electoral areas pro rata share of traffic fine revenue.
Ministry of Community Services Traffic fine revenues are distributed on the basis of police costs paid under the requirements of the Police Act; currently only municipalities over 5,000 in population are required to pay for policing. In smaller municipalities and rural areas the Province pays for policing out of general revenues, which is in part composed of property taxes in rural areas. The traffic fine revenue sharing grant program will be extended to regional districts and smaller municipalities in conjunction with the introduction of responsibility for 50 of police costs in those areas under the police finance reform initiative. In September 2003 the Solicitor General announced that implementation of police finance reform would begin in 200708, using the 2006 census population data.