RCMP Watch

(CBC News) - Hillsborough, N.B., has taken another step in its ongoing skirmish with the province over local policing by withholding $6,000 from the money it pays for its contract with the RCMP.The village wanted the provincial Department of Public Safety to pay the tab for a private security guard it hired last year, believing it was the best way to control petty crimes.

It had previously asked the government to help improve police coverage in the village beside the Petitcodiac River, south of Moncton.

Mayor Donna Bennett said the situation reached a crisis point last summer when only 16 of 26 officers were available at the local detachment in Riverview, N.B., which covers a large geographic territory taking in several villages and towns.

So Hillsborough councillors hired a security guard to work weekends in an effort to curb vandalism and other petty crimes.

Public Safety Minister John Foran has refused to pay the $6,000 tab, and the way he refused that has really upset Bennett.

“The last letter we got back from him was very blunt,” said Bennett, who has been corresponding with the department of public safety for months.

Bennett said the letter referred to Hillsborough’s “unique” circumstances, and implied that the youth crime problem in the village is worse than elsewhere.

She said that’s nonsense, and other local communities have the same problems, both with crime and with inadequate police coverage.

But, she said, the province doesn’t want to hear about it.

She sent off several pleas for help to Foran, so she has decided to fight back, dollar for dollar.

“We are withholding just over $6,000 from our umbrella contract with the RCMP.”

Bennett said she expects a slightly larger RCMP presence this summer.

But she’s pledging to carry on her fight with the government until the underlying policing issue is resolved.

The Public Safety minister could not be reached for comment.