Moncton councillors want new plan for paying Codiac RCMP

The City of Moncton will try once again to convince Dieppe and Riverview to come together todevise a new way to calculate how much each community pays for the services of the Codiac RCMP.

Moncton, which has complained itiscovering too much of the police budget, has been paying slightly more than 75 per cent of the costs. A new payment policy is needed for2008.

Moncton Mayor Lorne Mitton said he wants Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview to hire an independent expert to work with the province to come up with the new policy, noting that would bein everyone's best interest.

"If we don't come up with something, something will be forced upon all three of us that we may not like," Mitton said Monday.

Moncton Councillor Merrill Henderson said it's time to put the debate to rest.

"I'm almost two-thirds into my third term on council, and when I came on council this was an issue, and we've been talking about it, and talking about it, and it's gotten nowhere," Henderson said.

But Moncton councillors Brian Hicks and Katherine Barnes say they doubt talks with Dieppe and Riverview will produce a magic solution.

The two councillors also voted against a second motion in which the city refused an offer from the New Brunswick Policing Association. The police union wanted to pay an independent expert to study cheaper alternatives to the RCMP.

The majority of councillors felt such a study would not appear to be fair.

Moncton has been complaining that it pays too much of the police budget since 1999, when Premier Frank McKenna disbanded the old municipally operated Moncton Police Force and theDieppe Town Police, shut down the Riverview RCMP detachment and created Codiac Regional RCMP to police all three towns.

At that time, the McKenna government made Moncton take on 78 per cent of the cost, with Dieppe and Riverview splitting the difference at 11 each.

A pact two years ago put Moncton at 76.11 per cent, Dieppe at 12.18 per cent and Riverview at 11.71 per cent.

It was not supposed to expire until the end of fiscal 2006-07, but under continuing pressure from Susan Edgett, chairman of the Codiac Regional Policing Authority, an interim plan was struck in early 2006 with Moncton at 76.31 per cent, Dieppe 12.18 per cent and Riverview at 11.51 until a permanent agreement could be achieved.