For almost three months, Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan has said he wouldn't sign the new 20-year RCMP contract the province negotiated with the federal government until key issues like cost certainty and accountability were addressed in a meaningful way.
But on Tuesday morning, Corrigan told the Burnaby Now that, after meeting with the mayors of other holdout cities like Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and the district and city of North Vancouver, Burnaby will sign off on the deal.
"The cities got together and agreed to get an independent consultant to look at other policing alternatives," Corrigan said.
"In the interim, we've decided to sign the agreement provided there are no financial consequences imposed on us ... We're also looking at the two-year optout provision."
Coquitlam voted on Monday night to sign off on the deal while Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie told the Richmond News that the cities did agree to chip in for the consultation process, but no final decision has been made in terms of Richmond signing off on the RCMP contract.
"We're signing this under protest," said Corrigan. "We're under duress. The (B.C.) government put us in a bad situation, they put us between a rock and a hard place by negotiating a contract that didn't address a lot of unresolved issues."
