‘We don’t have the resources’
CBRM mayor, justice department spar over policing responsibilities
SYDNEY — Changes may be coming as to which police service would be responsible for patrolling the Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s major highways.
And CBRM Mayor Amanda Mcdougall-merrill says she’s none too pleased the province has not formally advised the municipality of these changes.
The mayor said the Municipal Government Act mentions that “if there’s any change in service, municipalities will be provided 12 months’ notice from the province of that change, so they will have ample time to prepare to budget, you name it."
“Since amalgamation (in 1995), It is detailed in the service exchange agreement … that the province of Nova Scotia is responsible for the 100-series highways. And the RCMP will patrol (them). That has always been the case,” Mcdougall-merrill said Tuesday at city hall.
Mcdougall-merrill said the CBRM only learned “within the past couple of weeks” that the RCMP would not be entering into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to further patrol 100-series highways within the municipality.
These include Highway 125 from Grand Lake Road to the Trans-canada Highway 105, and the 105 between the Marine Atlantic ferry terminal in North Sydney the Victoria County border in Dalem Lake.
“The Department of Justice has said, ‘Hey, CBRM, it’s up to you now,’” she said. “(And) we simply don’t have the resources to do so.”
She cited a March 29 fatality on the 125 near Point Edward where the RCMP handled that investigation. Regional police were on scene, but as a duty manager told the Cape Breton Post at the time, the matter would be best discussed with the RCMP.
Now, Mcdougall-merrill said that technically as of May 1, the RCMP would call all their service off 100-series highways within the CBRM, adding that the municipality would need to spend $700,000 to have regional police officers patrol those highways and be responsible for hiring extra officers and purchasing new vehicles.
“We now have to go back to the Department of Justice and say, ‘You are out of your minds,’” she said. “It is incredibly insulting right now.
To go against that agreement, it’s bizarre to me.”
CANCELLING MOU
Some changes in police patrols along CBRM’S major highways were made during a March 29, 2023 board of police commissioners meeting.
At that session inside council chambers, Cape Breton Regional Police Chief Robert Walsh said he was cancelling a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the RCMP’S integrated traffic.
“The MOU was an agreement under which the Cape Breton Regional Police Service (CBRPS) provided officers and equipment to assist the RCMP in providing the policing services they are responsible for, and were already providing, on provincial highways in the CBRM,” police spokesperson Desiree Magus told the Post.
“The CBRPS officers were seconded to the RCMP, and the RCMP paid the CBRM for the officers.
“CBRPS withdrew from the MOU to bring its officers back into its own organization where they are needed. All this means is that the CBRPS is no longer seconding officers to the RCMP to assist with their responsibility for policing the 100-series highways.”
Magnus, however, emphasized that ending the MOU “did not mean an end to (RCMP) policing on 100-series highways in the CBRM.”
Walsh had also said at that meeting he would seek clarification on which police service would be responsible for patrolling those major highways.
RCMP STILL PATROLLING
A spokesperson for the province’s Department of Justice confirmed to the Post via email the regional police MOU with the RCMP provided enforcement of “several sections” of 100-series highways running through CBRM.
“Supervision of our highways continues without interruption,” spokesperson Toby Koffman said.
He added that “Section 519 of the Municipal Government Act requiring the province to provide a one-year
nd notice to municipalities does not apply in this circumstance, (in which) there was no action taken by, or on behalf of, the province.”
The MOU, Koffman said, “had been in place since 2006. Under the Police Act, municipalities must notify the province of changes to such agreements before they happen. That did not happen here. The RCMP has continued to police the highways to ensure public safety.”
Hayley Crichton, executive director of the Justice Department’s public safety and security division, said the department was not privy to that MOU between the Cape Breton Regional Police and the RCMP.
“From the provincial perspective, nothing has changed,” Crichton said. “Post-termination of that MOU, the situation reverts back to what it would have been prior to that, which is based on the fact that municipalities are responsible for policing within municipal boundaries. And that includes the 100-series highways.”
ROUTE 4 RESPONSIBILITY
The RCMP also currently patrols Route 4 from west of Highway 125 in Sydney River to the Richmond County border in Irish Cove.
Crichton reiterated that highway would also fall under Cape Breton Regional Police coverage, as per the cancellation of the MOU.
“Within the boundaries of the CBRM, it will be the responsibility of the municipality for enforcement,” Crichton said.
However, Koffman said that while technically the change was supposed to take effect May 1, in the interest of public safety, the RCMP will, for now, continue to patrol that stretch of Route 4 — through such communities as Howie Centre, Ben Eoin and Big Pond — as well as Highways 125 and 105 (no confirmation was provided about Highway 162, Prince Mine Road).
“The continuation of RCMP patrols without an agreement means the province and the federal government are subsidizing policing services in the municipality that are the responsibility of CBRM,” Koffman said.
He added the Justice Department has informed the CBRM it needs to implement a solution by Aug. 30, pending approval from the department minister Barbara Adams.
‘UNDER-RESOURCED’
Still, with tight police budgets and the municipal budget already approved for the 2024-25 fiscal year, Mcdougall-merrill worries that regional police may be “under-resourced” patrolling those major highways. She said a letter would be going out to the department from “a legal perspective.”
“If they want us to patrol (those highways), we could do that, but they need to fund us,” she said.
“It is absolutely wrong and ludicrous to think that they paid the RCMP to patrol those highways (and) if they think they don’t need to pay us to do the same thing.”