City council voted 5-2 Monday night to reject a proposal to charge special events an hourly fee for attendance by the RCMP.
In the name of cost recovery, those holding such events were to be charged $115 per hour for each member had the proposal won approval.
Among those opposed, Coun. Cori Ramsay cited a section of the city's sustainable finance guidelines which encourage user fees to cover the cost of city services except when they result in a reduction of their use and lower revenue to the city.
Charging the host of a special event a user fee to have RCMP on site could be the deciding factor on whether or not to go ahead and could produce significant consequences for the city in terms of economic impact, Ramsay continued.
"The revenue from this could be a couple thousand dollars but the result of losing out on an event for the city could be several hundred thousands of dollars," she said.
Non-profit organizations who rely on events where alcohol is served to raise funds would be hurt, not just for-profit businesses, Ramsay later added.
Speaking in favour of the proposal, Coun. Garth Frizzell was skeptical about the impact it would have on businesses and not imposing a user fee means the taxpayer will have to continue to bear the burden.
"We've got to find ways to recover costs, it can't always be (about) money going out," he said. "We've got to look a good ideas like this for bringing money in."
Councillors Terri McConnachie, Brian Skakun, Murry Krause and Frank Everitt also voted against, while Mayor Lyn Hall joined Frizzell in voting in favour.
Coun. Kyle Sampson excused himself from the debate because he often works on holding events and Coun. Susan Scott was absent from the meeting.
