Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Land secured, City Council ready to move forward with RCMP detachment plans

The City of Prince Rupert made it official announcing Monday
of the purchase of land from the Jehovah Witnesses for use
as the city's new RCMP detachment


Oh, they were swingin' Down at Kingdom Hall 
Oh, bells were ringin' Down at the Kingdom Hall 
A choir was singin' Down at the Kingdom Hall
(from Van Morrison's Kingdom Hall)

After a decade and a half the City of Prince Rupert has finally stopped kicking a can down the road, with Monday night's City Council session providing word that the City has secured a site for a New Prince Rupert Detachment for the RCMP.

In a Report to City Council, the City's Chief Financial Officer Corinne Bomben outlined the path ahead for the City, reviewing the work that went into the purchase of the Jehovah Witness land at Third and McBride for the new RCMP facility.

"City Staff have worked to secure a new location suitable for the replacement RCMP building mandated by the Federal government. The arrangement sees the land and building owned by the Jehovah Witnesses on the corner of McBride and Third Avenue East acquired for this purpose" -- Prince Rupert CFO Corrine Bomben on the plan forward for a new RCMP detachment in the city

As we outlined on Monday morning, some hints towards the new location were dropped in recent weeks, particularly from a public notice of a proposed civic land sale that seems to have been the final domino to fall, with the Jehovah Witness congregation planning to purchase a section of land at 9th and McBride near the Civic centre, clearing the way for the eventual move of the RCMP to the downtown area.

Towards the moving parts of the process on Monday night , Ms. Bomben noted that when it comes to cost for this initial phase of the plans:  "the Budget amendment requires 2 million dollars which includes land acquisition and legal costs, engineering and geo technical costs and architectural design work." 

She further noted  that the funding for this part of the project comes from the proceeds of land sales of 225,000 dollars and use of 1.775 million from the northern capital and planning reserves. 

The news of some success on the long running issue was greeted enthusiastically by Mayor Brain and Councillor Niesh.

"Well I'll just also add that I think it's been fifteen years since the RCMP station has been an issue for the community and potentially even longer and I just want to  congratulate the team for brokering this arrangement and driving down costs and doing their best to be innovative and also tying this into downtown revitalization as well ... I think that this is good news for the community and I'm looking forward to seeing more construction happening in the downtown area through this building in the future" -- Mayor Lee Brain

"I just want to highlight the part where you talk about the RCMP building and the fact that we finally managed to deal with this and good work by staff; finally coming to a resolution and a solution to replace this building. I mean as much as we would  prefer not to have to pay for it, it's inevitable that we have to and the Federal government is going to make sure of that. So good job in finally securing what I feel is a spectacular location for a police station" -- Councillor Wade Niesh 

For his part Councillor Adey inquired about the fate of the old RCMP detachment and if any plans are in mind for its use after the RCMP move off the site, in reply the CFO noted that no decision has been contemplated as of yet, noting that the land is designates as public use.

City Manager Robert Long also paid tribute to the work of Ms. Bomben when it came to navigating the new building process towards the finish line.

"I just wanted to acknowledge Corinne, CFO, for certainly the RCMP building that's been something that she has been focused on doggedly for probably ever since I've arrived. Something that she's done a great job on and it was very complicated and difficult to get to, but she's got there and I just wanted to acknowledge that in front of Council and in front of community.  That is a super great job and difficult challenge, certainly both financially, locationally and in terms of trying to find the right spot and I think she's done a brilliant job"

While the Council members and senior staff circled the theme on occasion, it should be remembered that the need for action on the RCMP detachment came following the Federal force serving notice in 2015 that it could go ahead and build their own detachment and send the bill to the city. 

That announcement of five years ago seemingly adding some urgency to the civic efforts and  having moved the process into a higher gear in recent years.

And while the Council members paid much in the way of credit to the city staff for their hard work on the file,  there was no mention of the patience of the members of the policing agency that was shown for the city as the civic officials pushed the resolution towards the need for a new detachment further and further down the calendar in recent years.

You can review Ms. Bomben's presentation on the topic and follow up comments from the City's Video Archive starting at the 30 minute mark.


More notes on the Monday Council Session can be explored from our Council Timeline here.

While the initial work now gets underway, there was no timeline provided by the City Council as to how long it will take from the Monday announcement to any actual move in day for the members of the detachment, who will remain in their existing facility at Sixth and McBride.

There is also no indication as to what the total cost estimate will be from land acquisition, to design to final build and move in.

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