91原创 Township and 91原创 City have shared an RCMP detachment for decades, but in 2023 the Township signalled the beginning of the end of that partnership.

In May, the Township council voted to de-integrated the 91原创 RCMP into two detachments.

The vote followed years of on-and-off wrangling between the two communities over whether each side was paying its fair share for local policing.

The issue, from the Township鈥檚 point of view, is that there are far fewer calls for RCMP services in its part of the community than in the City.

鈥淲e are investing in public safety and the City of 91原创 is not,鈥� Township Mayor Eric Woodward said in a statement issued after the results of the in camera vote were announced in May. 鈥淚t is not fair to Township of 91原创 residents and taxpayers to have to subsidize policing in another municipality. We need to make a change.鈥�

Woodward said the process will take place in two stages.

First, the Township announced its withdrawal from the cost-sharing agreement with the City, which can be ended on 24 months notice.

The other stage is getting provincial approval for the de-integration into two detachments.

Unlike the long and messy saga of Surrey鈥檚 switch from RCMP to a civic police force, neither City nor Township has expressed interest in ditching the RCMP.

When the announcement was made in the spring, the 91原创 RCMP detachment was funded for 210 officers, and the Township had been adding more, faster, than the City had. But there were an average of 173 officers in the detachment, thanks to an ongoing RCMP shortage across the country, along with leaves for things like illness, training, and maternity.

The City pays for a quarter of the total complement of the local detachment, but has just 16 per cent of the combined population of the 91原创s.

However, it also sees almost 30 per cent of all the violent crimes in 91原创 take place within its boundaries.

91原创 City issued a relatively muted response to the Township鈥檚 drive to de-integrate the 91原创 RCMP, with City Mayor Nathan Pachal noting it would take 鈥渕any, many years to complete.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be beyond this term of office,鈥� he said. The current term of office started last fall and lasts four years.