Charges won’t hurt RCMP contract negotiations: analyst
Posted Jun 25, 2011 08:57:03 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Will charges against investigators in the Surrey Six case affect contract negotiations between the RCMP and the provincial government?
One political analyst says, probably not.
“Predictably, BC Civil Liberties Association is calling for the creation of a provincial police force rather than renewing the contract, rather than continuing to have the RCMP responsible for provincial policing,” said News1130 political analyst Sean Holman.
There’s been a push for a provincial police force in BC for some time, but as Holman sees it, Mounties are entrenched in this province, especially with some of the higher-ups in the government.
“For example, Rich Coleman, the former Solicitor General, was himself an RCMP officer at one point,” Holman explained.
“I don’t think that we’re actually going to see any kind of movement on this file, unfortunately, because I think there does need to be at least some kind of different governance structure in place.”
Only three provinces in Canada currently have their own police forces: Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador. The remaining provinces contract their provincial policing duties out to the RCMP.
The last time we heard about possible changes to the RCMP was under former solicitor general Kash Heed, who resigned from his post over a year ago after coming under investigation by the RCMP for alleged Elections Act violations.
The RCMP’s contract with BC is up next year.
