Langley Mayor Peter Fassbender says negotiations are complete, an agreement for continuing the RCMP role in British Columbia is done. Attorney General Shirley Bond – the person who promised to slash top salaries at BC Ferries – agrees progress has been made but says negotiators are still working on resolving issues.
I’m told the remaining impediment is that British Columbia wants the RCMP to handle police complaints more expeditiously. In the past, serious cases have dragged on unresolved for years after citizens raise issues of RCMP misconduct. Shirley Bond hopes the RCMP will shorten the time it takes to absolve police officers accused of wrongdoing. She said,
We want the complaint process to operate more quickly and more efficiently. Two years is plenty of time to impugn accusers and close internal inquiry files. There’s no point in dragging out a process and leaving officers sidelined on paid leave for years when, from the beginning, everyone knows the outcome.
Really though, do we need all the theatre that has been served up with this alleged negotiation? One would be brain deficient to think the outcome is not already determined. In 2010, the BC Finance Ministry completed an audit of RCMP services but they refuse to make it public. A little bit of knowledge, it seems, is a dangerous thing and Liberals prefer voters stay uninformed.
BC Civil Rights Association President Robert Holmes said this,
The Solicitor General is stonewalling the public and the Legislature by not putting forth this audit. It is required by law that transparency and accountability exist for proposed major expenditures like the RCMP contract being negotiated. Her bureaucrats may think that democratic government is inconvenient, but the public is entitled to the information and it is an affront to democracy for the Solicitor General to sit on the report. …No justification for delay has been offered and none exists.
The strongest clue that policing would continue as before is the construction of a massive new E-Division headquarters in Surrey’s Green Timbers Urban Forest Park. The facility will house almost 3,000 police personnel in about 1-million sq. ft. As part of the federal government’s green strategy to encourage use of public transit, parking at the facility will be limited to 2,000 spaces.
The project is being constructed for the Harper Government through a P3 led by French conglomerate Bouygues S.A with financing by British Bank HSBC.
Construction on the $1-billion headquarters started in 2010 while provincial and federal politicians were involved in the Kabuki dance, pretending that something material might change in British Columbia’s policing.
in-sights.ca 
In August 2011 BC was given a Triple A credit rating……and now the Finance Minister has caved in on his expectations….. does anyone know if we've lost our Triple A rating.
As an aside note: on the RCMP A- credit rating
The 'A-' issue-level rating on Green Timbers' C$181.9 million of amortizing senior secured bonds, due June 30, 2037
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The Google Earth images are three and half years old so I suppose the federal government have pressured them to keep more recent satellite pictures from being displayed.
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My recollection is that this site was an experimental forest in which UBC was involved back in the forties and/or fifties. The BC Forest Service had a major tree nursery in the area. I think Surrey residents have fought to have the area preserved as parkland and were only partially successful. I suppose the RCMP likes the site because it can be readily secured. I suppose Surrey like this use for all the jobs it brings to the area.
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I'm just a tad confused on where this new building it supposed to be. In this link they say: “The new headquarters facility will be located at 14200 Green Timbers Way in Surrey, B.C., commonly referred to as the Green Timbers site.” According to Google Earth that location is where King George Blvd. intersects with 56th Ave. (Number 10 Highway).
This Link simply calls it Green Timbers.
On this Post its called “Green Timbers Urban Forest Park”, which is way to the north of the first one. 104th St bisected by 96th Ave
Are the RCMP setting up shop in a Park, because that's what the renderings seem to indicate whereas the 14200 Green Timbers Way is developed already.
“The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) E Division Headquarters Relocation Project is a Major Crown initiative to relocate and consolidate existing RCMP headquarters units throughout Metro Vancouver to a new location in the City of Surrey known as the Green Timbers Site, at 14200 Green Timbers Way.”
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Apparently British Columbia companies, or Canadian companies, don't have the skills to construct a $1 billion project such as Fort Green Timbers.
Nor do Canadian companies have capability to build roads and bridges. We had to use foreign corporations Peter Kiewit Sons Co. and Flatiron Construction Corp for the Port Mann bridge and Highway 1 upgrade.
And, as you've pointed out, BC Ferries sent almost $1 billion to Germany to build four ferries for our coast. The Canada LIne is running cars from Korean company Hyundai.
This is insanity of course, insanity driven by governments with loyalty to the almighty dollar but none for working class citizens of BC.
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Heh. She wants them acquitted faster. Because it's not like bad cops in BC will be convicted of their crimes anyways.
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