Regular members of the RCMP have been without a wage increase since 2015, they've recently settled, and will be collecting retroactive pay from municipalities.
 
Sylvan Lake Town Council has approved the 2.5% increase which they will help fund from unrestricted surplus.
 
Communications Officer Joanne Gaudet says the province does subsidize about 30% of policing costs; the remainder of the bill is footed by the municipality.

“It’s one of those things you know a number of residents maybe don’t realize the municipality is responsible for, so it’s nice given our population under that 15,000 threshold that we get some subsidized help from the province. However, you know, it’s just the cost of doing business and ensuring safety for our residents and local businesses and our neighbours in the area”.

RCMP policing costs for 2017 and 2018 in Sylvan Lake are estimated around 2 million dollars.
 
Those dollars are funding 16 regular members.