Mike de Jong has been given an earful on the issues several cities, including Vernon, face with costs involving integrated RCMP detachments. B.C.’s solicitor-general met with the Vernon delegation earlier this week at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) convention at Whistler.
“It went well,” said Vernon Mayor Wayne Lippert of the meeting with de Jong. “We asked him to re-look at costs, particularly for those communities with integrated detachments like ours.” Lippert presented a report to the solicitor-general, believing Vernon is unfairly covering policing costs for the rest of the North Okanagan region. The report states the city currently pays virtually all support costs for 38.5 employees of the Vernon-North Okanagan detachment. The city funds 33.5 full-time equivalent employees, Coldstream covers two and three are funded provincially. Costs and employee increases due to a new records management system and other service level increases have also largely been covered by Vernon. The local detachment has been integrated since 2004. “What’s key to note is the contract for policing is done directly between the provincial and federal government. It has nothing to do with the RCMP or municipalities,” said Lippert. “When the costs are put back to the municipalities, they’re all sub-contractors of the province, not the federal government. The municipalities need to talk to the province.” The solicitor-general seemed to take Vernon’s words and report to heart. “He was making notes on that so that he could study it,” said Lippert. “Most of the detachments and sub-contracts the province has with municipalities and regional districts are not of the integrated type. They’re full, where everyone is paying the same and boundaries are defined and everybody’s in the same circumstance in those boundaries. “In the North Okanagan, we have a large urban area that can go directly into a large rural area and they can’t use resources outside the City of Vernon in the rural area.” Lippert met with about 30 other mayors, including communities with integrated detachments, to discuss issues such as policing costs.
“One thing nobody’s happy with is a 20-year-contract offered by the federal government and they won’t budge on it,” said Lippert. “There are clauses, however, to review the contract every five years.”
The current RCMP contract expires in 2012. Lippert and Couns. Jack Gilroy and Shawn Lee spent the week meeting with close to 10 provincial cabinet ministers talking about a number of subjects at UBCM.
1 comment:
What a waste of time and waste of taxpayers money.They could of sent a position paper to the MLA-he would understand that better than listening to those 3 xxxxx.
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