By David Wiwchar

Mayor Minions protests police costs

Feb 24, 2025 | 7:58 AM

Port Alberni Mayor Sharie Minions says she’s extremely frustrated by the continued increase in the city’s RCMP budget.

Policing already consumes 37% of the city’s total budget and is going up a further 9% this year.

Minions says the city shouldn’t have to pay if they don’t have a say.

“We had a 7% increase last year. It’s not a one year thing. It’s literally every year and it’s completely outside of our control and I find that extremely frustrating,” she said. “The last-minute hits to our budget and the lack of control that we have has gotten so much worse in the last five years with the RCMP service and how that contract is being managed and passed down to us in cost, and we can’t just not say anything about it.”

According to provincial statistics, Port Alberni has more officers per capita than other similar-sized communities, which is based on crime rate, but no crime statistics have been presented to council in more than 2 years.

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Minions said governments need to fix the funding model, where City of Port Alberni property owners pay $700 a year for policing and rural areas pay just $70.