Sechelt council approved an occupancy agreement between the Sunshine Coast RCMP and the District of Sechelt on April 13 that will see the detachment pay $550,000 in back payments to the district.
The local detachment has been without an occupancy agreement since 2002 but had been paying the district for use of the space and what was thought to be the RCMP’s portion of loans and costs associated with construction of the building up until 2013.
Payments were based on a calculation used by the district, according to interim chief financial officer Linda Klassen, but that calculation wasn’t officially incorporated into an occupancy agreement until now.
“I think we’ve been negotiating on and off for several years. I’m not sure why we never reached an agreement and signed it. I know I’ve seen it signed by the District of Sechelt representative, but I haven’t ever seen it signed with the RCMP,” Klassen said.
“I haven’t been here long enough to know what happened way back then. I know that we tried to negotiate different formulas throughout the last few years and I think we just finally reached a formula that works for both of us.”
The new formula shows that the Sunshine Coast RCMP owes $550,000 to the District of Sechelt in back payments and the RCMP detachment is also proposing to pay another $178,458 to cover its remaining “self-funded portion” of building costs for the justice services building that was constructed in 2002.
“Instead of amortizing our debt they would pay us another $178,000 and we wouldn’t use that calculation any further in our cost-sharing agreement. It’s like paying out the loan,” Klassen said, noting that portion of the agreement has been approved in principle but not yet signed off by both parties.
Council seemed pleased with the conclusion of long negotiations with the RCMP detachment, but Coun. Darnelda Siegers noted the new contract (which would take effect retroactively from 2002) is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2017, at which time the detachment could choose to renew it for another five years, and then there is no further right of renewal.
“So what actually happens then?” Siegers asked.
Milne responded by saying “we’re back to square one with negotiations.”
He called the cost-sharing arrangement for the justice services building “innovative” and gave the credit for it to former mayor Cameron Reid.
“At the end of the day we have a courthouse and amalgamated detachment, a facility that we own, through negotiations, so it was a good move,” Milne said.
