With only two weeks to the end of April and the date by which the province's new 20-year policing deal with the RCMP becomes effective, Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan is still looking for answers so that he can determine what the city's next move will be.
Corrigan told the Burnaby NOW on Monday morning that discussion of the proposed contract won't hit the council table until after April 20, a day when he, along with other mayors, will meet to discuss what the new contract means.
"I won't make any decisions until then," said Corrigan. "I want to keep an open mind to see what other mayors have to say. ... What I will say is the main theme is we want to emphasize all the uncertainty, the constant uncertainty about what our future costs will be. The uncertainty about futures costs makes it difficult for mayors to sign on unless we get a clear picture of what we're signing up for."
Burnaby still hasn't officially signed off on the deal - Surrey, with the country's largest RCMP detachment signed off at the beginning of April - and some cities like Terrace are threatening not to sign off on the deal after last week's revelation that the contract includes salary increases for RCMP members that the municipalities weren't made aware of.
The proposed contract with the RCMP has municipalities paying annual raises of 1.75 per cent, 1.5 per cent and two per cent, starting Jan. 1 of this year.
Corrigan admits that the city knew about this year's pay increase, but there was no mention of increases in subsequent years.
In addition, the RCMP is building a new office, to be based in Surrey, that is estimated to cost $1.2 billion.
"I call it the RCMP Taj Mahal," said Corrigan. "We've been asking for years about what our share of paying for a new building is and we were told there would be no additional costs. ... Now, we're hearing it could cost us up to $1 million a year to help pay for that building."
Corrigan said he has remained relatively quiet on the issue of the RCMP contract because he is still getting information about the complex intricacies of the deal.
For example, Corrigan pointed out that the province negotiated their deal with the feds whereby the province pays only 70 per cent of the costs of using RCMP police resources such as traffic supervision and commercial crime investigation - the feds pick up the other 30 per cent - while negotiating a deal where larger cities like Burnaby remain on the hook for 90 per cent of the costs of contracting the RCMP for police services.
"The province negotiates the best deal they can for themselves and they sell out their partners to get an advantage," said Corrigan. "I would think it would make more sense for an 80-20 split."
And that points to the bigger problem of the municipalities not even being at the negotiating table.
"The province and the federal government negotiate and the municipalities are in the crowd watching. ... The province asserts the right to negotiate on behalf of the municipalities and we have to pay the bill."
Corrigan said he's looking forward to what his colleagues have to say at this Friday's meeting.
"I'll be interested to see whether others share the same concerns I have," said Corrigan. "Many of these costs have been put on the table for the first time. ... Was this intentional obfuscation by the federal and provincial government? I want to see what issues come out of the April 20 meeting."
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