Talks have yet to begin on cost sharing for the RCMP’s new billion-dollar B.C. headquarters on Surrey’s Green Timbers site, according to a Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) memo obtained by Business in Vancouver.
According to a June 18 memo by Peter Fassbender and Clayton Pecknold, the co-chairs of the Local Government Contract Management Committee, “all items related to Green Timbers are up for negotiation, including what portion of the proceeds of the sale of the federally owned current headquarters at Heather Street will offset the costs of the new building.”
The facilities talks are separate from the 20-year Provincial Police Services Agreement.
Construction began two years ago on the 14.8-hectare Green Timbers site, where the 76,162-square-metre complex will hold 2,700 personnel and be surrounded with parking for 1,800 vehicles.
During a June 23 CKNW interview, RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson described it as a “Cadillac building that’s on-time, on-budget.”
But there’s no guarantee that proceeds from the to-be-vacated Vancouver property will defray Green Timbers costs. A November 2010 federal workshop discussed the strategic sale of surplus properties, but conceded there were overlapping Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish first nations land claims for the existing E Division headquarters.
The City of Burnaby fears an annual bill as high as $1.5 million for its share of Green Timbers. Langley City mayor Fassbender and director of provincial policing services Pecknold said in the memo that a five-year RCMP forecast in May estimated municipalities would be charged a $1,200-per member annual administration cost for Green Timbers.
“That contract should have been sorted out a long time ago,” Brodie said. “I don’t understand when Ottawa decides to build a building for E Division not knowing who or exactly what departments will occupy the premises and what the financial expectations are.”
French construction giant Bouygues Batiment International and Bird Construction are on-track to complete the Green Timbers project by December, when Bouygues’ ETDE Canadian facility management arm will take over.
InfraRed Capital Partners, a former HSBC unit, is the financier for the Green Timbers Accommodation Partners.
The RCMP’s bid for a liquor licence for as many as 1,200 seats hit a roadblock June 25 when Surrey city council refused to schedule a public hearing. •
