4 more RCMP officers will soon be seen on Niverville streets

After nearly five years of planning, the town of Niverville is finally at the stage where they can officially request additional RCMP officers to police their community.  

At this week's town council meeting, the following motion was brought forward. 

“Be it resolved that council authorizes the mayor and C.A.O. to enter into a Municipal Police Service agreement with the Federal Government for RCMP policing services for the town of Niverville.”  

Moved by Councilor Chris Wiebe, seconded by Councilor Bill Fast.  

Niverville C.A.O. Eric King explained that this has been a project that has been 4-5 years in the making.  Back in 2018, the town did a police study where council at the time, decided to go with the RCMP option as opposed to a Town of Niverville Policing service.  

King also noted that construction of the Niverville RCMP detachment inside the town office is continuing and that this motion makes it official so that the mayor and C.A.O. will now be able to “request the four RCMP officers that will call Niverville their home base and authorize Canada to charge the starting April 1st for those officers.”  

Mayor Myron Dyck clarified the town is not doing the hiring of these officers, rather RCMP headquarters will be doing that. To which, King confirms and notes, “we are contracted with Public Services and Safety Canada”. 

When asked when Niverville residents would start to see a larger RCMP presence in the community King says, hopefully as soon as April 1st. However, when it comes to RCMP administration personnel, King hopes that it will be sometime this summer.  

The motion was carried unanimously.  

In a discussion after the meeting, Mayor Myron Dyck noted the rationale behind the need for additional police presence in town.  

“So, four constables is something that the RCMP says is what is required for a community our size. This is not necessarily us saying how many we want or how many we need, this is them saying, 'based more where you're at currently, that this is the starting point.”  

Dyck notes that with the agreement that was passed on Tuesday, the town has officially entered into an agreement with the RCMP.

“We have always had a contract with the RCMP. This one however, is based on population and so now, because our population, as of the last census, has put us past the 5000 mark and basically the cost of our RCMP goes up, still we had to formally enter into the contract agreement saying, “Yes, once again we contract you for RCMP services for Niverville.”  

The mayor continues saying that he is most excited that Niverville residents will be able to very soon see a greater police presence in town.  

“We will have RCMP officers that will be working stationed out of here. I understand we will have one corporal and three other officers, with the corporal answering to the staff sergeant at the St Pierre detachment.”  

Until the Niverville detachment is completed the 4 new RCMP officers will be based in St. Pierre.