Riverview to consider pulling out of Codiac RCMP building cost-sharing agreement

A motion by a Riverview councillor calls for the town to opt out of a cost-sharing agreement with Moncton and Dieppe for a new Codiac Regional RCMP station after its estimated price rose to $57 million.

Coun. Cecile Cassista gave notice of a motion on Monday that town councillors will debate at a future meeting. Under the agreement, Riverview and Dieppe would pay rent on the building Moncton would build.

The estimated cost of the station has risen from $46 million to $57.2 million. A final estimate won't be known until bids are received, something expected early next year.

"The cost to the town is going to be phenomenal," Cassista said in an interview, saying the actual cost still isn't known because bids have yet to be received.

"So I really think that we need to pause this for a moment and take a look at what's going on with our policing services."

The motion is expected to be debated at a Nov. 22 committee meeting, with a vote at a council meeting in December. 

It's unclear if the motion will have enough support to pass.

Riverview Mayor Andrew LeBlanc declined to comment until Cassista has presented her rationale for the motion.

Though the motion is only about the planned police station, Cassista said town residents have increasingly been voicing concerns about policing and crime.

"I think that we need to really take a hard look at our policing and do we want to own part of a building?" she said. "Those are the questions that we need to raise and come before council and it needs to come in a public forum."

It's the latest challenge to plans for a building to replace the station on Main Street in Moncton built in the 1970s and now considered unsafe and too small for the Codiac Regional RCMP.

Moncton councillors voted 7-4 on Oct. 18 to issue a construction tender, sign a 30-year lease for the building, and seek increased borrowing authority from the Municipal Capital Borrowing Board.

That night, Moncton Coun. Bryan Butler asked about what would happen if Riverview or Dieppe decided to withdraw from the cost-sharing agreement because of the higher price.

City manager Marc Landry told councillors there's a legal agreement among the communities, and if that were to happen they'd need to discuss it with the city's legal department. 

Coun. Daniel Bourgeois asked later that night if Dieppe and Riverview agreed to the new cost during a closed-door meeting between the three communities earlier in October. He wasn't given a direct answer.

"It just was a discussion, no recommendations," said Elaine Aucoin, the city's project manager for the new station.

Bourgeois asked if the cost-sharing agreement has a clause that says Riverivew and Dieppe must agree to a new cost if the price increases. 

Charles Léger, Moncton's deputy mayor and chair of the Codiac Regional Policing Authority, told Bourgeois that is the case.

Léger told CBC this week that under the agreement, one community could withdraw by providing notice two years ahead of time.

Earlier this month, Moncton council voted unanimously in favour of reviewing policing services. There's no clear timeline for that process.