Port Metro cuts back on police protection
Loss of $400,000 will reduce size of policing unit to nine from 13
A specialized police unit that investigates crime on the waterfront will be cut by almost a third after Port Metro Vancouver axed $400,000 a year of its funding.
The cut takes effect Jan. 1, meaning the RCMP-led National Port Enforcement Team will be reduced from 13 to nine officers, Sgt. Annie Linteau confirmed Wednesday.
The funding cut comes just months after a Vancouver Sun investigation revealed that at least 27 Hells Angels, associates, criminals and other gangsters work as longshoremen on the Port Metro Vancouver docks. The Sun also obtained government and police documents that show an unaddressed organizedcrime problem on the waterfront dating back more than 20 years.
Police told The Sun that organized crime maintains its foothold on the waterfront for strategic purposes — so drugs and other contraband can be smuggled in some of the more than 1.5 million containers that pass through the four container terminals at Port Metro Vancouver every year.
Just over three per cent of the containers arriving here are screened by the Canada Border Services Agency.
Port Metro Vancouver vicepresident Peter Xotta said the decision was made to cut the funding because policing is not part of his agency’s mandate.
“As you know we don’t have direct legislative authority around policing on the waterfront,” Xotta told The Vancouver Sun.
He said the port has invested in all kinds of technology to improve security at all its terminals, including 600 cameras, access gates, patrol boats and a high-tech operations centre.
“We felt that because there’s ongoing need to continue with those investments, it was no longer appropriate for us to fund something that is outside of our mandate,” Xotta said.
He said Port Metro has paid the $400,000 annually to the policing unit since 1997.
“We recognize this creates a funding issue for the RCMP and we are sympathetic to that, but we have to focus on what our mandate is,” he said.
“We have committed well over $10 million to increasing security at the port over the past number of years.”
Linteau said Port Metro’s contribution has covered the cost of two municipal police officers seconded to the team, as well as two of its RCMP members.
“We respect Port Metro Vancouver’s decision to dedicate these funds to other security and operational priorities and we will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners,” she said.
NDP MLA Kathy Corrigan said to cut policing at the port now is “really wrong-headed.”
“It seems to me that it’s the worst time to be cutting back on security and policing at our ports at a time when we are particularly concerned about gun violence, gang violence and drugs,” said Corrigan, who represents Burnaby-Deer Lake.
Corrigan said the B.C. government “has not done a good job about pressing hard for British Columbians’ interest on this.”
Delta Mayor Lois Jackson said she is concerned about Port Metro’s decision to cut the cash and has asked municipal staff to look into the situation.
Justice Minister Suzanne Anton said in an emailed statement that she had been notified of the funding cut.
“I understand that RCMP’s federal resources remain in place within the RCMP’s National Port Enforcement Team and we anticipate the federal team will continue to provide appropriate policing services to maintain security for B.C.,” she said.