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South Vancouver Island mayors want 9-1-1 cost equity & fees shifted to cell phone bills

10 municipalities with RCMP policing will see E-comm fees go up in 2025

south Vancouver Island mayors
Mayors from 10 south Vancouver Island municipalities assembled on the BC Parliament Building steps on Jan 30, 2025 to protest downloading of 911 dispatch fees onto their municipalities but not others. [Mary P Brooke / Island Social Trends]
CANADA-USA NEWS & ANALYSIS

Tuesday February 4, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC [Updated February 9, 2025]

by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends


The mayors of 10 South Vancouver Island municipalities took their concerns about emergency dispatch cost downloading to the steps of the BC Parliament Buildings on January 30.

It was a chilly morning, attended by 17 municipal representatives, led by North Cowichan Mayor Rob Douglas. Mayors who contributed their thoughts at the microphone included Metchosin Mayor Marie-Terese Little, Langford Mayor Scott Goodmanson, and View Royal Mayor Sid Tobias.

south Vancouver Island mayors
Mayors from 10 south Vancouver Island municipalities assembled on the BC Parliament Building steps on Jan 30, 2025 to protest downloading of 911 dispatch fees onto their municipalities but not others. [Mary P Brooke / Island Social Trends]

The impacted municipalities are: Colwood, Duncan, Ladysmith, Langford, Metchosin, North Cowichan, North Saanich, Sidney, Sooke and View Royal.

On January 30 they sent a letter to Public Safety Minister Garry Begg to outline their concerns and demands regarding the inequitable downloading of RCMP dispatch costs to their municipalities, while other municipalities have 911 service costs covered by the Province.

The fee hit will start April 1, 2025 (at the start of the provincial fiscal year); municipalities follow a calendar-year fiscal year.

“The South Island is being unfairly singled out,” said Mayor Douglas. South Island Mayors seek equitable police dispatch costs from the Province.

municipal councillors, jan 30
South Vancouver Island municipal councillors protest 9-1-1 dispatch fee download, at BC Parliament Building steps on Jan 30, 2025. [Mary P Brooke / Island Social Trends]

“While other RCMP dispatch centres in British Columbia remain fully funded by the province and the federal government, our municipalities are being asked to absorb these costs without consultation or consideration of the financial strain this creates for our communities,” said Douglas in his opening remarks at the outdoor microphone.

The 9-1-1 dispatch service in the south Vancouver Island area is handled by the centralized E-comm centre located in Saanich. The volume of calls continues to increase as the population of this region grows. The peak calls were in July 2024 at 200,500; in December 2024 there were 161,578 calls and in January 2025 there were 152,062 calls.

e-comm 911
  • Five years ago in 2020 the peak monthly call volume was 177,580 followed by steady increases: 203,162 in 2022, 240,759 in 2023.
  • Ten years ago in 2015 the highest monthly call volume was 122,470 and back in 2011 (the first year of E-comm operational stats) it was 84,060.

Lag-time through election period:

Property tax increases of 2.7% to 6% would result, said Douglas. He added that at the September 2024 Union of BC Municipalities convention in Vancouver that this issue would be resolved. “there has been no meaningful consultation or an exploration of alternative funding models,” said North Cowichan Mayor Rob Douglas.

The lag time is likely due to the BC provincial election period that straddled September through into November 2024 (after awaiting final count in early November, the cabinet was not sworn until November 18, 2024 and mandate letters to Ministers were not issued to a slim NDP majority government cabinet until January 16, 2025).

langford, traffic, ad

Levy the fee on cell phone bills:

The 10 south Vancouver Island mayors and municipalities are recommending a 9-1-1- dispatch fee be included on cell phone bills (as was done years ago when everyone had a land line and the fee appeared on phone bills) as is evidently already done in Alberta and Quebec.

9-1-1 on cellphone
9-1-1 service is available on all cell phones.

New public safety minister:

On January 30, an open letter from the Mayors was sent to Honourable Garry Begg, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General as a kick-off for the media event.

Begg is new to the job and to politics, but as a former police officer is considered well suited to the top-cop job of the government. Begg was appointed to the BC cabinet on November 18, 2024.

garry begg, solicitor general, public safety minister
Garry Begg addressed media about his new role as Solicitor General and Minister of Public Safety, Nov 18, 2024. [Mary P Brooke / Island Social Trends]

Trying to avoid property tax increases:

The letter from the mayors outlines the projected cost of E-Comm dispatch services for the nine months from April to December 2025 as $4.9 million for the 10 impacted municipalities, escalating to more when a full 12-month obligation would kick in 2026.

For each municipality, this cost alone represents a property tax increase of at least 2.7% to 6%, compounding other financial pressures from inflation, aging infrastructure, increased service expectations, new provincial mandates around housing, and ongoing downloaded costs associated with the opioid epidemic.

district of sooke

Ah the rub, inequity:

This inequity is further exacerbated by the fact that other OCCs in B.C. continue to receive full funding. It’s also financially unsustainable if the only source of funding would be from local property taxes.

Maintaining the original OCC would have been considered a viable option if these financial implications had been made clear during the initial transition.

metchosin, mayor, events

Maintain status quo while under review:

“We are pleased that you have committed to reviewing this service; however our request is to maintain status quo while this review is undertaken,” the mayors said in their letter.

langford mayor, scott goodmanson
City of Langford Mayor Scott Goodmanson addresed media about E-comm fees being charged to municipalities, Jan 30, 2025. [Island Social Trends]

This would help municipalities have to cut back from other areas of service to their residents and communities.

For the small municipality of the District of Metchosin (population just over 5,000) it would mean having to spend an additional $140,000, said Metchosin Mayor Marie-Thérèse Little.

For Langford the additional E-comm bill would be over $2 million.

mayors, marie-terese little, parliament buildng
Mayors from 10 south Vancouver Island municipalities (Metchosin Mayor Marie-Terese Little at microphone) assembled on the BC Parliament Building steps on Jan 30, 2025 to protest downloading of 911 dispatch fees onto their municipalities but not others. [Mary P Brooke / Island Social Trends]

What they want:

The Public Safety Minister is being asked by the 10 mayors to consider addressing the inequity and to support the south Vancouver Island municipalities, by having the Province:

  • Maintain 100% transitional funding until the E-Comm review is complete and actionable solutions are implemented.
  • Address the funding inequity between South Island municipalities and other jurisdictions, ensuring consistent and fair treatment across B.C.
  • Introduce a telecommunications levy to offset 9-1-1 dispatch costs and align with funding models in other provinces.
  • Engage in meaningful consultation with our 10 South Island municipalities on this issue.
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Who was there:

Municipalities showed up en force:

ist main, federal, esquimalt-saanich-sooke
Political & economic news analysis at IslandSocialTrends.ca .

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