Cape Breton police commissioners worried about new fee for volunteers

The board of commissioners for the Cape Breton Regional Police Service has approved a proposed new set of user fees, but a couple of members say they are concerned about a criminal records check fee for volunteers.

Chief Robert Walsh said police do about 6,700 criminal record checks a year and 5,000 of those are for volunteers.

There is no charge for volunteers, but the chief said many times people are not even picking up the documents they have requested.

Fees for peace bonds and collision reports also need to increase, he said.

"I want to point out that our fees have not changed since 2008, yet demand for these services has grown significantly and continues to stretch the capacity of our resources," Walsh told the commission on Monday. "It's even costing us money to provide this service."

Police are recommending a new fee of $15 for volunteers to get a criminal record check. Peace bonds, which are currently delivered free of charge, would now cost $75 and collision reports required for insurance purposes could rise to $30 from $23.

Up to $50K in new revenue

Collision investigation files would go from being free to costing $345. The measures could bring in up to $50,000 a year in new revenue.

Dale Deering-Bert, a civilian member of the police commission, said she is worried about volunteer groups that are already struggling because of the pandemic.

"I don't want to create hardships for organizations that are already experiencing hardship, but I see the point of it costing money to do the work," she said.

Churches could be hit particularly hard, said commissioner Lloyd Bailey, another civilian member.

"I am a member of the church council here in Sydney Mines and there's about 15 people on the council and we have to get police checks every year," he said.

"At this time of COVID, we have difficulty balancing our budget because there's no parishioners in the church."

Coun. Steve Gillespie said fees for police services have not changed in more than a decade and it's time they did.

"The reality is our costs are costs of the taxpayer and it is up to us to make sure that these costs are brought down, and if increasing fees is the way to do it, then I'm in full agreement that fees must go up," he said.

The police commission approved the proposed new fees for criminal record checks, peace bonds and collision reports, but the chief said in light of the commissioners' concerns, he would do more work on volunteer fees.

"We don't want to create hardship on any organization, especially volunteer organizations where these people give so readily of their time," Walsh said.

"We're not trying to make this cost prohibitive at all."

Walsh said CBRM administration is asking all departments to consider increasing user fees and is considering a policy that would see fees increase annually by the cost of living.

He said he will try to bring the volunteer fee down before it gets to CBRM council for final approval.

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