Emily Plihal
Local Journalism
Initiative Reporter
In April 2024, the Town of Peace River chose to start collecting revenue from fees for issuing criminal record checks.
At its July 22 meeting, council received an update on the money collected over the months since beginning the collection.
“The fees are for a service provided through the Town’s RCMP detachment,” says Mayor Elaine Manzer.
“The Town pays about $2.6 million for RCMP detachment services for the town and this includes costs for three administrative Town employees that work at the detachment,” she adds.
The purpose behind starting to collect the fee was to recover a portion of the costs associated with municipal employees working at the detachment.
“The fee is a small way to recover some of the costs of the service of providing criminal record checks at the detachment,” explains Manzer.
“Some employers require these checks as part of their employee contracts and many organizations require their volunteers to also have these checks.”
Initially, the fees were approved at a rate of $25, with a reduced fee for volunteer applicants of $10. The volunteer fee has been subsequently removed.
“Council approved the removal of the $10 fee for volunteer applicants to help organizations in their efforts to recruit volunteers by providing one less cost for the volunteer,” notes Manzer.
“The fees collected go into general operational revenue to offset the costs of the RCMP town detachment.”
Since its inception, from April to June, the town has collected $10,500 in revenue from 420 applications. There were also six volunteer applications processed.
“Fees are reviewed annually and council will have the opportunity to access this change during the discussions on the fees policy,” says Manzer.