Nearly six years after ground was broken on the building – and two years since it opened – talks continue over who pays for what at the RCMP’s regional headquarters in Surrey.
The Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM), in a January 20 update memo, told its members that B.C. and Canada “disagree whether the new RCMP HQ is considered an existing building or a new building under the [Provincial Policing Services Agreement].”
As a result, some municipalities are deferring their share of payments to the billion-dollar Green Timbers project, which was built as a public-private partnership with French constructor and property manager Bouygues (PA:BOUY).
The memo explains that talks were complicated by the construction straddling the new, 2012 B.C.-wide policing contract.
“The province offered to pay fair market rent, but the federal government rejected that offer,” said the UBCM memo. “The committee has supported the province’s position that this is not an ‘existing’ building.”
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie said in an interview that if it is deemed a “new” building, then users would be on the hook for capital costs that should be borne by the federal government, which decided to decommission the old Fairmont headquarters in Vancouver.
Canada Lands Company and the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam first nations announced a deal worth $307 million in 2014 to take over the RCMP’s Fairmont campus, Jericho Garrison and land near the Department of Fisheries and Oceans lab in West Vancouver.
“What government would build a building worth hundreds of millions of dollars without real knowledge of who is going to occupy that building and what the financial ramifications are, without discussion with the parties that are expected to pay the bill?” Brodie asked.
In Richmond’s case, the municipality has set aside $573,900, its payments for 2013 to 2015. The formula is based on $1,200 for each of the 191 full-time equivalents in 2013 and $900 for each of the 191 in 2014 and 192 in 2015.
Brodie said the ongoing talks epitomize the issues municipalities have with the RCMP. Richmond is studying whether to give its two years’ notice and start its own police force.
A request to interview B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Morris was not fulfilled.
The ministry released a prepared statement that said it was “focused on paying for our fair share of costs related to the new RCMP headquarters at Green Timbers and continue negotiating toward that goal as we pursue an appropriate deal for B.C. and municipalities.”
@bobmackin
