Police Petition Waiting For Response 00

Posted on 8/2/2016 6:00 AM by Pete McIntyre 1075 KISFM

The federal government may respond this fall to a Vernon based petition calling for auxiliary police officers to get a tax credit. North Okanagan Shuswap Conservative MP Mel Arnold tabled a 779 name petition on the issue in the House of Commons back in May. He is not sure if the Liberal government will support the idea. "On these types of things, government usually keeps them quite close to the chest until they are ready to make an announcement." Arnold says the government may issue a response, when parliament resumes September 19th. "I believe we'll get a response in some way, but the response may simply be that we are looking at this issue, but are not moving forward at this time. That is a potential," Arnold tells Kiss FM. Arnold says auxiliary officers put their lives on the line for Canadians, and to not recognize them the same as volunteer fire fighters, would be a shame. The petition was initiated by Vernon city councillor Bob Spiers. Most of the people who signed it were from BC (388), while 284 were from Ontario. The RCMP Auxiliary Constable Program was first introduced in 1963 to enhance community policing and crime prevention initiatives, and there are currently about 1,600 Auxiliary Constables nation-wide.