Christina Myers, Burnaby, B.C. (Burnaby Now) – City council will be sitting down to consider the role and future of the RCMP.
The Union of British Columbia Municipalities has sent out a survey to municipalities around the province on the cost and accountability of RCMP services.
Councillors decided on Monday that the survey needs to be answered in part by staff but also in part from a political and policy standpoint – and that requires more time for thought and discussion.
The survey is intended to collect information about local governments’ views on the RCMP contract in advance of contract discussions.
Specifically, it looks at three key areas: the cost of policing and whether or not it will be affordable in the future; the accountability of police services to local governments and ways that it might be improved; and general issues around the RCMP contract, such as the length of the agreement, allocation of police costs and development of a partnership.
The information will be used in part to put together a discussion paper on policing for the 2009 UBCM convention, but it will also be used in discussions with the provincial government on the RCMP contract.
Rick Earle, the city’s director of finance, told council that the survey required a political perspective.
“There are only really two questions that can be answered by me. The rest are truly policy issues. … It has to be answered at a political level,” he said.
Coun. Nick Volkow suggested that councillors set aside an evening to convene a workshop on the issues in the survey, to discuss the questions.
“Let’s do it on a night when that’s the only item,” he said.
Volkow suggested it would be more helpful to have an entire evening to consider the issues rather than attempting to discuss it prior to an already scheduled meeting.
Council agreed to arrange a workshop, and Mayor Derek Corrigan encouraged the councillors to consider their own answers to each of the questions in the nine-page survey in advance.
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