An increase in law enforcement in rural areas will come at a hefty cost to county residents.

This morning, Justice Minister and Solicitor General Doug Schweitzer announced a new police funding model will add more 500 RCMP positions in rural communities across the province.

It calls for increasing the number of RCMP patrol officers to 1,900 from 1,600 in rural detachments. It will also add members to specialized RCMP units that dismantle organized crime and drug trafficking and investigate auto and scrap metal theft.

Additional civilian positions will assist with administrative tasks and provide investigative support.

For the first time, rural municipalities will be on the hook at an escalating rate for costs associated with increasing the level of service.

The rural municipalities will pay 10 per cent of the cost starting in 2020, 15 per cent in 2021 and 30 per cent in 2023.

Up until now, policing for rural municipalities and communities with populations of less than 5,000 was covered by a federal-provincial policing agreement. But the service provided was sparse in comparison.

The federal government will continue to cover 30 per cent of the cost, but the province's portion will drop.

While rural municipalities expected to cover some of the cost, the amount could prove burdensome for some counties, says Al Kemmere, president of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA).

In addition, they don't agree with basing the cost on equalized assessment and believe it should be determined by population. They know of no other province that uses this model.

The announcement is poorly timed, he says.

"This is now making them go back to the table and redo their budget work and either cancel projects, change service levels or increase taxes," says Kemmere.

It also comes at a time of a serious economic downturn where counties are already facing many financial challenges in their tax base. Some have oil and gas operators who are already unable to pay their taxes.

"We do acknowledge that if we are going to advocate for dealing with rural crime that we do need to have a role in funding some of that," acknowledges Kemmere.

"We've been advocating over the years to deal with rural crime, but we weren't advocating for 100 per cent of what we see here today."

Besides serving as RMA president, Kemmere is a councillor in Mountain View County. The new agreement means that county will have to find $400,000 in its budget for 2020. That escalates to over $1 million by 2023.

On the positive sign, he says RMA agrees with the creation of a new Alberta Police Advisory Board. The board will set and review service levels and provide accountability.

Schweitzer says municipal leaders will have a seat at this table.