Mounties lower flag on 55 years at detachment on Doyle Avenue

Police mark move from old headquarters in Kelowna to new

An RCMP parade covered just 750 metres Tuesday in Kelowna, but it symbolized a move 55 years in the making that came at a cost of $48 million.

Two dozen members in red serge marched from the Doyle Avenue detachment, built in 1962, to a new police services building at the corner of Clement Avenue and Richter Street.

“It was time for a new building with proper working conditions for the RCMP,” Mayor Colin Basran said during opening ceremonies for the new 100,000-square-foot detachment.

The Maple Leaf flag outside the Doyle Avenue detachment was lowered and carried to the new one, where it was put into storage rather than hoisted again.

“In preserving the flag, we pay our respects to those who served the city in the past,” Kelowna RCMP Supt. Brent Mundle told the large crowd of police, retired officers, city officials and interested members of the public who attended the opening ceremony.

A new flag was raised by Const. Conrad Erbes, the newest member of the Kelowna RCMP, who joined the detachment on June 15.

Jim Stuart, mayor of Kelowna from 1986 to 1996, was on hand for the event, as were two former Kelowna RCMP detachment commanders, Dave Roseberry and Bill McKinnon.

Although the old detachment had been expanded and modernized several times over the years, it was considered too small and not equipped with state-of-the-art facilities.

“I heard many a tale of mice in the building and other (poor) working conditions,” said Brenda Butterworth-Carr, commanding officer for the RCMP in B.C.

Before the ceremony, Westbank First Nation elder Wilfred Barnes performed a cleansing ceremony “to clear the space of negative energy and bless the building,” those in attendance heard.

Pastor Tim Schroeder, a former member of the Kelowna RCMP auxiliary and the detachment padre, said the new building will be a place representing peace, safety and security for decades to come.

“Those who are bent on doing wrong are not going to like this place,” Schroeder said. “But to the law-abiding majority, this is a great place.”

GARY NYLANDER/The Daily Courier Piper Brewer salutes RCMP members marching along Clement Avenue on their way to an opening ceremony for Kelowna’s new police services building Tuesday morning.

GARY NYLANDER/The Daily Courier Insp. Paul MacDougall and other RCMP members take part in a flag-lowering ceremony Tuesday at Kelowna’s old RCMP detachment on Doyle Avenue.

GARY NYLANDER/The Daily Courier RCMP Insp. Paul MacDougall, centre, receives the flag for Kelowna’s new police services building from RCMP deputy commissioner Brenda Butterworth-Carr, left, commanding officer of the B.C. RCMP, as Staff Sgt. Ross Van Den Brink, right, looks on during...