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The RCMP will continue to provide policing services to provinces and municipalities, according to Codiac Regional RCMP Acting Supt. Ron Desilva.
In a meeting on Thursday evening, Desilva said he had been informed that they will continue in their current role despite speculation that suggests otherwise.
“We have been assured by senior RCMP officials that there are no plans at this time for RCMP to exit contract policing,” he told the Codiac Regional Policing Authority.
DeSilva said this came through a meeting with senior management out of the national headquarters.
“There is no direction that we’re leaving contract policing from within the RCMP. So, as far as we’re concerned, we’re going to continue policing.”
The CRPA is responsible for providing regional policing services to the municipalities of Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview.
Though in recent months, skepticism has been cast upon the future of the RCMP providing policing services to municipalities and provinces, largely due to the extraordinary rise in costs caused by a new national contract.
For the CRPA, it has meant an annual cost of $39 million, according to the City of Moncton’s 2022 budget.
However, concerns go deeper than a new price tag, with the Parliament of Canada’s Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security recommending that the RCMP cease to provide its policing services to municipalities.
It adds that the Government of Canada should work with Provinces and municipalities to establish their own police forces in the future.
The RCMP has provided policing services to the tri-community since a local police force was dismantled in the 1990s.
A resolution recently adopted by the Union of the Municipalities of New Brunswick calls for a review of policing services in the province, including Moncton.
At a Nov. 1 public meeting, Moncton City Council voted in favour of hiring an impartial expert on policing services in 2022 to update a previously conducted policing services study.
