Fifteen B.C. municipalities where Mounties provide policing - including Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam - did not meet the province's deadline yesterday (Thursday) to sign the new RCMP contract.
And it's unclear how many will approve the deal by the new date set this week by Attorney General Shirley Bond.
On Tuesday afternoon, Bond announced she would extend the deadline for the third and last time to June 30. In a statement issued by her ministry, Bond said: "We recognize that some municipalities have additional questions regarding the cost impacts of the recent federal government budget decisions related to the RCMP.
"Ministry staff has been working specifically with those municipalities who have not yet signed their municipal agreement for RCMP services. They have been answering questions and providing information and will continue to do that," the statement read.
Currently, municipalities that haven't signed the 20-year national contract don't have an agreement for RCMP services, she said.
Those councils that don't agree to the terms by June 30 "are at risk of losing their federal cost-share and would be liable for 100% of their policing costs if they do not sign," she said. "They may want to talk to their communities about what that loss of federal funding means to them."
Under the RCMP contract, the federal government subsidizes 10% of a municipality's policing costs.
The province inked the deal in March but each municipality that contracts the RCMP must still sign on.
PoCo Coun. Mike Forrest, acting mayor, said he's pleased Bond agreed to the 30-day extension, which "provides us time to continue to work with the province and several other Lower Mainland municipalities to address our outstanding concerns such as the cost-sharing formulas for the regional integrated teams and the RCMP's head office in Surrey," he said in a statement.
A request for comment from Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart was not immediately returned.
