Bill Casey Continues to Battle with RCMP

The Member of Parliament for Cumberland/Colchester has upped the ante in his war of words with the RCMP.

In a letter to the Commissioner of the police force, Bill Casey asks why the RCMP would pay nearly a million dollars for unused office space in Dartmouth?

Casey says a 2017 Operational  Communication Centre Feasibility Study reveals the police are renting “a significant amount of vacant space (in excess of 100 desks),” including, “three suites on the first floor and one on the third floor,” at 80 Garland Street in Dartmouth.

The MP did the math, showing the RCMP has paid rent at a rate of $13,675 per month every month for six years. He added, “The total paid to date would be $984,600….for empty space.”   

Casey received a redacted copy of the report through “Access to Information.”

He says the same report suggests the police are considering a plan to keep paying such rent for ten more years.

In his letter to Commissioner Brenda Lucki, Casey asks two questions. “Why would the RCMP rent significant vacant space for six years at cost of nearly a million dollars?” and “Why would the RCMP have a plan to continue to rent this empty space for ten more years at an additional cost of 1.6 million dollars?

He suggested the space could have been used by another federal government department, noting the Coast Guard, the Department of Transport, or Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Casey says, “None of this makes any sense to me.” He added, “The total rent already paid plus the rent for ten more years would be $2,625,600….. for the empty space. It seems to me that this $2.6 million in rental costs would be better spent providing front line RCMP Officers with needed equipment.”

The MP has been at odds with the federal police over their plan to move their communications centre from Truro to Halifax, in effect, putting all their eggs into one basket, a move Casey calls ill-considered and dangerous.

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