The provincial government and municipalities will have more say in how the RCMP is run in B.C. now that a new 20-year contract with the Mounties has been signed.
The federal and provincial governments renewed the RCMP's B.C. policing contract in Surrey on Wednesday, during a special ceremony at Canada's largest detachment.
Federal Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and B.C.'s Minister of Justice and Attorney General Shirley Bond signed off on the new contract, following four years of negotiations.
Burnaby-Deer Lake MLA Kathy Corrigan told the Burnaby NOW on Wednesday morning that she had not seen the document yet, but from what she's heard, she still has concerns.
"The local governments haven't signed off on it yet," said the NDP's public safety and solicitor general critic. "As I understand it, the province is signing off on their end and local governments will be looking at it, and it's a 'take it or leave it deal' for local governments."
Burnaby's current agreement expires on March 31. The new one, like the one it's replacing, still contains a clause where any city or municipality can opt out with two years' notice.
Cities such as Burnaby will have until the end of April to go over the local contract before they sign on or decide to opt out.
Burnaby councillors and staff received the contract last week for review, and
staff is poring over the contents.
It will be reviewed every five years.
"This contract gives us new management and oversight ability that will allow us to contain costs and take a more direct role in determining what police services will look like in our province," Bond said. This will largely be the role of a new Union of B.C. Municipalities local government contract management committee, which will replace the current contract advisory committee.
The RCMP has more than 200 municipal contracts across Canada, and 60 of those are in B.C.
Under the new contract, basic costsharing formulas remain the same, with smaller municipalities and cities with populations between 5,000 and 15,000 people paying 70 per cent of their contract costs, while cities with populations over 15,000 will keep paying 90 per cent.
Corrigan said one of her biggest concerns is that municipalities don't have much protection from rising policing costs.
"I don't think there's a way for cities to stop rapidly increasing policing costs. - The person paying the bills needs to have some ability to control the costs," she said, adding that the provincial government missed an opportunity last year when negotiating with the feds.
"I would have liked to see a costing out of what it would have cost to go to a provincial policing (service)," she said. "That was an alternative we could have looked at."
SFU criminologist Robert Gordon told the Burnaby NOW that after looking at the backgrounder and press release concerning the new contract, he was not surprised.
"Lots of rhetoric, the entire focus on cost containment. - I don't see a whole lot different from what's in the current contract," said Gordon.
Gordon said he's also not surprised about the secrecy that surrounded negotiations.
"There was zero public consultation on this," said Gordon. "But that is hardly surprising because it's never been a major issue for people in an organization such as the RCMP."
Gordon said he would have liked to see the province take a bigger role in looking at alternative policing models. "This was an opportunity for the province to provide leadership and get rid of the antiquated policing structure whereby Vancouver and Victoria are major Canadian (regions) not run by a single police force."
Mayor Derek Corrigan was in a meeting on Wednesday morning and flew to Mesa, Arizona Wednesday for a sister-city visit. He did not return calls to the Burnaby NOW on Wednesday.
The Burnaby NOW also requested official comment from Burnaby's top RCMP officer, Chief Supt. Dave Critchley, but according to Burnaby RCMP media relations Cpl. Rick Skolrood, Critchley would not be offering any comment at this time.
