While the new census data released by StatsCan shows promising signs of growth, it also comes with a higher financial burden for the Town of Oliver.
According to the census, Oliver’s population grew by 3.4 per cent between 2016 and 2021 to 5,094 residents.
That growth pushed the community over the 5,000 threshold where the municipality is required to cover 70 per cent of costs for municipal police officers.
The remaining 30 per cent is covered by the federal government for communities of up to 14,999 people.
READ MORE: Oliver looking at 9% tax hike to cover increased policing costs
It is a situation that the town has been readying itself for the jump in expenses with increases to taxes for residents above inflation over the last few years.
“We’ve been preparing for this since 2018 and we’re in a good place right now,” said Mayor Martin Johansen. “We’re looking at another nine per cent increase in 2022, and we’ve included the increased police costs in our budget for 2022.”
The exact costs have not been figured out and will be decided in negotiations between the town and the provincial government over the next few months. Conversations with other municipalities have the town currently building their budget around an expected cost of $1 million for their officers.
“Will it be six provincial RCMP and four municipal, will it be five and five, four and six, those all have to be determined and they all have their own costs,” said Johansen.
The community’s growth came in below the average for other nearby communities, such as Osoyoos’ 10 per cent growth and Penticton’s 9.3 per cent, but it is not entirely unexpected.
“We do have a housing shortage here, the opportunities for people to rent are very limited, so I think there are a lot people who are working in the area who are maybe living outside the area of Oliver,” said Johansen.
It is a situation that Johansen is expecting to see change in the future, with plenty of construction either underway or in the planning for the next couple of years.
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