RCMP deliver final letter related to new detachment requirements

Current RCMP detachment in
Prince Rupert. The RCMP is now
in the position to have a new
building constructed

During her Budget Presentation to Council on Monday evening, the City's Financial Officer advised Council that the City had taken receipt of a letter from the RCMP.

A correspondence which provided for a final notice from the police force, advising that the local detachment is now overdue for a replacement building.

With the delivery of that notice, the RCMP is now in the position to move forward on their own, should they desire, in order to construct a new detachment of their own design and submit the bill to the City.

However, before that stage is reached, it would seem that further discussions with the City are on the horizon, as Ms. Bomben offered up the suggestion that engagement with the public on that issue is once again about to commence.

"We were aware that this letter would come day and in fact the City began the process of consultation with the community in 2012. The process stalled but now we are in the position where we either take the next step and have some control over what is built, or the RCMP will build it for us and send the City the bill .  Staff intend to engage the community with respect to this notification and begin necessary planning" -- City Financial Officer Corinne Bomben providing notice of receipt of a Final letter from the RCMP regarding a replacement building for the local detachment.

The replacement issue once was a long running discussion topic, if not a bit of a soap opera for past City Councils, though in recent years it has hardly been mentioned if even in passing.

The last council of 2011--2014 having kicked it down the road for the most part during its three year term, or as Ms. Bomben more politely put it, the process stalled.

Since mid 2013 the topic of the proposed replacement building seems to have been left in a state of limbo, owing mainly to the city's financial situation of the time.

A theme that continued on through last year, as a review of our archive from 2014 would seem to suggest that the topic never once came up for review in any open session of council last year.

With the RCMP taking measures to provide its thoughts to the City on their building concerns, the discussion now appears destined to come out of hibernation.

Some of that past history can be reviewed below.

March 15, 2013 -- City Council clicks its heels and hopes for the best
March 10, 2013  -- Emergency Services Building Review set for Monday night
December 17, 2012 -- City Council kicks the emergency services building debate down the road
March 16, 2012 -- The residents are rumbling
March 6, 2012 -- Discussion begins on emergency services replacement building

You can review Ms. Bomben's advisory to council from the City's Video Archive, it starts at the 1 hour eighteen minute mark.



For more items related to discussions at City Council see our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review