Image: B.C. Highway Patrol / B.C. Highway Patrol members are pictured. Chilliwack Councillor Bud Mercer, a 34-year member of the RCMP who is now retired, said a plan to shift B.C. Highway Patrol duties to the nearest detachment is flawed because it would likely require Chilliwack RCMP members to respond to crashes and accidents on provincial highways like the Coquihalla, at a time when the RCMP is already down 20 per cent in terms of member staffing.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Chilliwack councillor blasts province

Chilliwack councillor slams province over plan to shift Highway Patrol duties to local detachments

Jun 7, 2023 | 10:28 AM

CHILLIWACK — If anyone ought to know the ins and outs of law enforcement, it’s retired RCMP member and Chilliwack Councillor Bud Mercer.

At the tail end of Tuesday’s Chilliwack city council meeting, Mercer, a 34-year member of the RCMP, took the provincial government and Chilliwack’s two MLAs to task over a proposed plan that would shift duties like accident response on the Coquihalla from the B.C. Highway Patrol to Hope and Chilliwack RCMP detachments.

The plan, which is slated to take effect September 1, 2023, would require RCMP members from the nearest detachment to respond to calls for service on provincial highways like Highway 5 and Highway 3. However, as Councillor Mercer was quick to point out, Hope RCMP simply doesn’t have enough cars, so the next nearest detachment with sufficient capacity is Chilliwack.

“If there’s an accident on the Coquihalla at 8 p.m. tonight, near where the toll booths used to be, it’ll now be the responsibility of the Hope detachment to respond to that call,” Councillor Mercer said. “With the speed of the highway and the geography, there will be multiple cars required. Hope doesn’t have the cars, so guess where they’ll look for cars? Chilliwack.”

Image: City of Chilliwack / Chilliwack Councillor Bud Mercer says it is a terrible idea to shift B.C. Highway Patrol duties, like accident response for example, to the nearest RCMP detachment because it will likely draw Chilliwack RCMP members away from the detachment they were assigned to at a time when the RCMP is already low on members by approximately 20 per cent.

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Mercer said he first learned about the proposed change to B.C. Highway Patrol response protocol during a mayors forum a few weeks ago where Mayor Ken Popove and Councillor Jason Lum were also present. It became clear to Mercer that the presentation outlining the shift in highway patrol responsibility was flawed from the get-go.

“It doesn’t contemplate what actually is happening on the road,” Mercer said. “It was embarrassing for me, as an ex and retired RCMP member, to listen to the flawed rationale and the pie-in-the-sky ideas that if you take highway patrol away from doing those duties and let them focus on people driving with cell phones, that it’ll make all our lives here in Chilliwack easier, and all the crashes and fatalities on the highway will end and we’ll be better for it.”

Further, Mercer called out the joint presentation from the RCMP and Solicitor General’s office as being dishonest because the speakers said they had extensively consulted with cities who would be impacted by the change.

“I don’t know how many times in the presentation, your Worship, they talked about all the consultation that has been done with the city,” Mercer said, speaking to Mayor Popove during Tuesday’s meeting. “This is our tax dollars, these are municipal members. That was just a bold-faced mistruth on the part of the RCMP and Solicitor General’s office. The first we heard of this was from our chief administrative officer at a CAO forum this year.”

The RCMP is already 20 per cent down in its members due to personnel shortages, Mercer said.

“It comes at the same time that the RCMP is running, and I’m sure [Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment] Superintendent [Davy] Lee will clarify, but we’re probably running 20 per cent shortages, and now we’re taking on this extra work. We’re running 20 per cent shortages and we’ve already been warned that our members will be required to help with the wildfires in the Interior.”

Mayor Popove agreed that he had seen no evidence of consultation with the City of Chilliwack.

In response to Mercer’s frustration, Councillor Chris Kloot suggested the City of Chilliwack demand a meeting with the provincial government.

“I think it’s pretty evident how frustrating it is for a former member of the RCMP sitting here with the know-how of the whole organization, and I guess it’s another frustrating ill-thought out decision by this provincial government where common sense is obviously lacking,” Kloot said.

Mercer said he wonders where Chilliwack’s two elected MLAs have been on this important issue.

“I’ve said it before at this table, but I’ll say it again, where are our MLAs? Our MLAs (Dan Coulter and Kelli Paddon) are our representatives with government. Our contract is not with the RCMP. Our contract is with the solicitor general’s office for RCMP services. The province is visibly absent. We should work with staff to get both our MLAs into council.”