Earlier this year, I wrote about Peachland, and how 14 people there cost them $651,600 in annual policing fees. It’s all part of the way the RCMP contract is structured:

• Cities with less than 5,000 residents pay roughly 10% policing, with the province and feds picking up the rest.
• Cities 5,000 to 14,999 pay 70% of their RCMP contract costs; the rest comes from Ottawa.
• Cities with more than 15,000 people pay 90%, the feds pick up the last 10%.

Peachland has 5,013 people, meaning they move from the first tier to the second.

Now, the Penticton Western News reports that Oliver officials are getting nervous, as a new corrections centre there may push them over the 5,000 population mark:

Oliver came in at 4,824 in the last federal census in 2011 — 176 shy of the threshold.

“We were really close to 5,000. (BC Stats) suggests we lost 300 or 400 people in the last year prior to corrections moving in and all these jobs being created,” Hovanes said…

 “(The correctional centre) is going to have an impact. Close to 300 jobs, 240 corrections staff plus 60 contracted personnel,” Hovanes said. “I’m thinking a couple people, a couple kids per family, we’re talking close to 1,000 people moving to the South Okanagan. Not necessarily just Oliver and the surrounding area.”

It’s another reminder that the contribution formulas should be smoothed out, allowing more gradual increases as a population grows, rather than a giant cliff at 5,000 and 15,000 people.