One of the communities leading the way in resisting the RCMP contract will now ratify the deal.
Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan says the hold out mayors have recieved what he called a “threatening letter” from the justice minister.
“indicating that there would be significant additional costs imposd upon muncipalities if in fact we didn’t sign the agreement so I think all of us got together and had a discussion about it and thought it was best if we signed the agreement under protest we certainly feel that we are being placed under duress.”
Corrigan says they will ratify under protest but might take advantage of the opt out clause in the contract down the road.
“Well we are and we are also going to be saying that in signing the agreement we don’t expect that there will be any additional costs imposed upon us as a result of that. That is if we do give our notice that we will be able to get out without any consequences.”
Corrigan says he can’t speak for the other hold out mayors but he expects they too will ratify and word is Coquitlam already has.
“None of them I think were particularily happy about this alternative but it was the lesser of two evils if we held out and didn’t sign the contract it was apparent that the Solicitor General would be imposing additional costs on the municipalities we weren’t going to let that happen so we decided that signing was the better course of action.”
He says the mayors as a united front will still forge ahead with options to the RCMP including a regional police force.
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