EAST HANTS/COLCHESTER COUNTY: A new provincial funding model for RCMP policing is designed to give fast-growing communities such as East Hants greater flexibility to respond to changing public safety demands while also allowing municipalities to reinvest savings into local crime prevention initiatives.
Justice Minister and Attorney General Scott Armstrong, MLA for Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley, announced Wednesday that the province will invest an additional $16 million in 2026-27 and $18 million annually thereafter under a new RCMP billing model that shifts more policing costs to the province.
The funding will support 25 additional RCMP officers across Nova Scotia, while ensuring no municipality loses officers under the new approach.
The billing model takes effect in October and is retroactive to April 1, 2026.
Responding to questions from The Laker News during the announcement, Armstrong said the new formula is intended to better reflect the realities facing communities that are growing rapidly, such as East Hants, while also recognizing the different policing needs of rural areas like Colchester County and larger municipalities such as the Halifax Regional Municipality.
“That’s a perfect example of why a rigid per-officer model is no longer effective,” Armstrong said.
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He noted Nova Scotia is experiencing population growth unlike anything seen in decades, making it important that police funding no longer be based simply on officer numbers.
Instead, the new model will be reviewed annually using several factors, including population growth, geography, crime severity, service demands and operational pressures.
“The fact that this new billing model is flexible… will now, for the first time in many years, be malleable enough to deal with changes in communities,” Armstrong said, pointing to growing areas such as East Hants where additional policing needs may emerge as populations increase.
The province says the revised formula creates a more equitable system by considering crime severity, geography, population, service demands and community public safety pressures, replacing a model largely tied to officer counts.
Armstrong said that flexibility is also important when communities experience sudden spikes in criminal activity.
He cited the example of Clare, where organized crime temporarily increased policing demands before a lengthy RCMP investigation reduced those pressures, illustrating why policing resources need to adapt as local circumstances change.
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Nova Scotia’s comprehensive policing review, released last year, recommended moving toward a community-needs-based funding model as one of six foundational changes aimed at improving public safety across Nova Scotia.
During his announcement, Armstrong said the goal is to modernize policing by ensuring resources are aligned with actual community needs rather than municipal budgets.
Armstrong also told The Laker News the municipal savings created by the new billing model should allow communities to invest in public safety measures that best fit their local needs.
Using Colchester County and East Hants as examples, he suggested municipalities could hire community safety officers to increase visibility in business districts affected by shoplifting or employ social workers to conduct wellness checks on seniors, allowing RCMP officers to remain available for frontline policing.
He also said additional policing capacity could help restore dedicated school resource officers, who are often reassigned to cover staffing shortages.
“As a former school principal… having officers in schools is a great crime prevention model,” Armstrong said, noting those relationships help build trust with youth while allowing officers to intervene before problems escalate.
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Provincially, most municipalities served by the RCMP are expected to see reduced policing costs under the new formula, while no municipality will pay more than it does today. T
The province says any municipal savings must be reinvested into local public safety priorities.
This includes layered policing, community safety planning, mental health and addictions response, and crime and violence prevention initiatives.
The investment is part of the province’s ongoing response to recommendations contained in both the Mass Casualty Commission report and the Desmond Fatality Inquiry.
It comes alongside other policing review initiatives such as developing a province-wide police records management system.
