Politician wants city to break bank for cops
Thorpe says raid reserves to pay for 5 Mounties
PENTICTON — To provide badly needed reinforcements for the Penticton RCMP detachment, a former B.C. cabinet minister is urging city council to pull $5 million from the municipality’s reserves to hire five new officers as soon as possible and fund their services for the next five years.
“We seem to be undermanned, we seem to be talking about it at council, but (councillors) don’t seem to be action-oriented,” said Rick Thorpe, who held four different cabinet posts while serving as an Okanagan MLA from 1996 to 2009.
Thorpe said he and his wife, Yasmin John Thorpe, came up with the proposal because they’re concerned about the deteriorating state of Penticton along with admissions from the local RCMP commander about his short-handed detachment’s struggles to maintain order.
In 2019 – the most recent year for which data is publicly available from the B.C. government – each Mountie in Penticton had an average caseload of 170 files. That was by far the most of any detachment in a B.C. community with a population over 15,000; the next highest was Prince George at 134.
Thorpe isn’t sure if five new Mounties would make a difference on the streets of Penticton, which has 48 officers in its detachment, but “it’s certainly got to help a lot.”
As for the money, Thorpe noted the city reported total reserves of $106 million as of Dec. 31, 2020. While some of the cash is offlimits due to requirements of senior level of government, Thorpe is confident city staff could find $5 million without harming Penticton’s financial position.
And to avoid the estimated $170,000 annual cost of each officer simply being added to tax bills after five years, Thorpe recommends council make it a priority to rebuild the RCMP reserve account to help soften the blow.
“If we can commit $8 million to a bike lane, we know we have the money,” added Thorpe.
Finally, he’s offering to lobby at the provincial and federal levels to get the new officers here as soon as possible, noting that while council approved hiring two new Mounties as part of its 2021 budget process, those boots aren’t expected to be on the ground until 2022.
Community safety is one of city council’s three priorities, and Mayor John Vassilaki has been the most vocal proponents of putting more bylaw and Mounties on the streets.
Vassilaki said he likes Thorpe’s proposal and will take the request to council when budget deliberations begin this fall, which is the soonest the mayor believes the issue can be properly addressed.
“I can understand where (Thorpe) is coming from,” said Vassilaki. “I wish we could do it today.”