Moncton council votes to review who polices city

Moncton councilvoted unanimously Mondayin favour of reviewing whether to keep the RCMP or move to another policing model.

The motion by councillors DanielBourgeois and Paul Richard cited "significant" salary increases resulting from the RCMP'sfirst union contract and broader provincial and national discussions about the future of the RCMP.

"What would serve us best? What would be the best model?"Bourgeois said in French during Monday's council meeting before the vote.

The motion calls for the city to hire an independent expert next year to update a study completed in 2010.

That studylooked at reverting to a municipal police force, changing to an RCMP service that only polices Moncton, or keeping the Codiac RCMP that polices Dieppe and Riverviewas well. That study recommended the status quo.

The debate about what police force to use has occasionally resurfaced after the New Brunswick government forced the city to switch from a municipal force to the RCMP in the late 1990s.

Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold said the first step will be to define what the new study will examine.

"Then, looking into what is best for probably all three municipalities for safety, security and from a fiscal perspective," Arnold told reporters after the meeting.

"What is the future of policing? Those are things we all need to be looking at right now and I look forward to the whole process."

No timeline

Riverview councillors last week added a line to the town's strategic plan calling for working with Moncton and Dieppe on a review of policing options.

Bourgeois suggested the review could also involve Riverview and Dieppe, and potentially cost-share the work with those municipalities.

No timeline has been set for the review. City Manager Marc Landry said it will likely take some time to draft terms of referencethat council will need to accept.

A city staff report said the 2010 studycost$160,000 and a new version could cost upwards of $200,000, depending on its scope.

The motion was introduced Oct. 18, but couldn't be debated until Monday evening.

The motion was amended Monday to remove a line calling for haltingwork on a new police station "until the fate of the RCMP as a municipal policing services provider is determined more definitively."

Bourgeois said that issue was decided two weeks ago when councilvoted 7-4to issue a construction tender for the project estimated to cost $57.2 million.

Bourgeois and Richard were among the four who voted against the motion that evening.

Last week, Coun. Paulette Theriault told CBCNews she'd support Monday's motion if it was amended to remove the section about pausing work on the new building.

"Even if I don't agree with the whole motion, I find that there are parts of it that are really, really important, especially everything that addresses the future police force, policing services and so on," Theriault said before the motion was amended to remove the halt on the new station.

Theriault was among the seven councillors who voted in favour of the new building, saying that the existing station on Main Street is unsafe. Several councillors said a new building would be required for whichever police force the city may have in the future.

Following the 2010 review triggered by concerns about the rising cost of the RCMP,a 20-year contract between the Mounties and the Codiac Regional Policing Authority was signed.The contract allows either party to withdraw from the agreement by providing two years notice.