SHOULD North Vancouver be policed by Mounties? This is a serious question the community must answer as it picks over a proposed - very expensive - 20-year contract with the RCMP.
The district and city of North Vancouver, together with other holdouts, said this week they need more details before they'll sign the deal. Some of the unanswered questions are huge: How much will unionization cost? Who will pay to police First Nations lands? Who will pick up the bill for the new billion-dollar headquarters?
The answers so far haven't been good: Costs may balloon as much as 50 per cent in three years, according to the force, even as crime continues to ebb.
How could such key figures have been left out of the deal? Because the agreement was negotiated between the province and the federal government, neither of whom has to foot the bill.
When those costs start to skyrocket, it will be municipal taxpayers who suffer, and municipal governments, not more senior leaders, who get hammered at the polls. Little wonder, then, that the arrangement is flawed.
If North Vancouver had a municipal force, as West Vancouver does, this disjunction would be eliminated. Those who draw up the contract would be directly answerable to taxpayers, and thus much more motivated to keep costs contained.
There are advantages to having a federal force, most obviously access to shared services such as tactical teams and aircraft, but in light of the picture that's emerging, North Vancouver should think carefully about whether those perks are worth the expense.
