Yesterday, at the UBCM Convention - BC Solicitor-General Shirley Bond dropped a bombshell on UBCM attendees...that BC was handed an ultimatum - sign 20 year RCMP Contract like Alberta/Saskatchewan or face RCMP pullout by 2014 - see stories here, here, here and here
In the meantime - Ottawa says "no deals" - see here
Food for Thought:
Would it not have been prudent to have "Plan B" (BC Police Force) on the shelf, in case negotiations went south. Now - BC has a very short window to make a decision...either alienate BC Municipal officials who rightly charge the RCMP are costing them too much (Williams Lake's top budget line is the RCMP at roughly $3 million) and sign a 20 year deal or walk away & rapidly plan for a provincial police force by 2014 which, according to SFU Criminologist Rob Gordon who says both:
a) It is just physically impossible to come up with a police service for the province and for the metropolitan areas in that short a period of time.
b) This is grotesque brinksmanship and not the best way of making social policy.
It'll be interesting to see if Ottawa gets off its' "my way or the highway" stance for a new RCMP contract. If not - I, for one, think that BC should give Ottawa the "one finger salute" and move into a provincial police force. We simply can't afford more of the continuing same with the RCMP - no accountability, no flexibility...
No comments:
Post a Comment