TRURO, N.S. — An RCMP report shows that officials “manipulated” cost figures to make it prohibitive for maintaining its Operational Communications Centre (OCC) in Truro, a Nova Scotia MP says.
“The deck is stacked so bad no alternative could ever win that competition,” said Bill Casey, the MP for Cumberland-Colchester.
“There is nothing about this that makes any sense to me,” he said, of information contained in an RCMP options analysis report that he received through an Access to Information request.
“It looks to me like they decided what the outcome was going to be and then they made the number fit that conclusion.”
RCMP officials announced last February of its intentions to close the long-standing OCC in Truro and relocate the emergency communications service to its divisional headquarters in Dartmouth by early 2021.
But figures provided by Casey to the Truro News show that in all five options considered by the RCMP for maintaining the OCC in the Truro area, an additional cost of $164,100 per year, or $1.6 million over 10 years, was factored into the analysis.
Conversely, no rental or property cost for moving the OCC to Dartmouth was included.
“It’s added in there because that is the cost of keeping the space empty in Dartmouth,” Casey said. “The problem here is that they have too much space in Dartmouth.
The RCMP wants to relocate the Truro operations to Dartmouth to fill office space at its headquarters at 80 Garland Avenue that has sat vacant for six years.
“And what they want to do, if they allow the facility to stay in Truro, they are going to make it literally pay to keep that space empty in Halifax rather than sublet to the coast guard, DND or some other secure government agency,” Casey said. “But it’s their preference to keep it empty for 10 more years. That’s how crazy this whole thing is.”
The 250,000 sq.-ft.-building, which has served as the RCMP’s H Division headquarters since 2013, was constructed over nearly a decade at a cost of $113 million for Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC).
“With the anticipated costing to H Division, having to reimburse PSPC for excess space in the current HQ building, the current rental rate $547m2 cost for Suite 1500 (306m2) would be $164,100 annually over ten years,” the RCMP report says. “By not filling this space with the OCC, this would be a cost to H Division.”
Despite stating those costs in the report, RCMP spokesperson Lisa Croteau told the Truro News the force is not paying any rent on that vacant space. And while the RCMP says it has committed to having an independent study conducted regarding the relocation decision, Croteau said work is continuing on the relocation efforts.
Both Casey and Truro-Bible Hill-Millbrook-Salmon River MLA Lenore Zann said the process should be halted until an independent analysis has been completed.
“This chart, I think, is offensive and it’s below the standards of the RCMP,” Casey said. “They’ve occupied it for six years and they shouldn’t. It should have been split six years ago. But now they’ve got this system and I absolutely believe it is going to put Nova Scotians at risk, my grandchildren in particular, and that bothers me.”
Other reports have recommended against having two OCCs located within proximity of each other. The recommendation is that they should be located at least 100-km apart in the event of a disaster that could put one or the other out of service.
Option 1 of the six provided in the analysis refers to maintaining the status quo at the OCC in Truro.
The total 10-year cost for that option is listed as $5,017,926. But Casey says if the $1641,000 expense for maintaining empty space in Dartmouth was removed, the actual figure would be $3,3376,926, the lowest of the six options.
Admittedly, Casey added, the facility would require upgrades to remain operationally viable moving forward.
Those upgrades are covered in Option 2, for which a total figure of $6,869,850 is listed in the analysis (all figures cover a 10-year span). Casey says the actual estimate for that option should be $5,228,850.
Option 3, to relocate to a new site in Truro is costed at $6,825,000, or $5,184,000 if the $1.6 million figure is removed.
Option 4, to relocate to Dartmouth, is listed at a cost of $3,545,189. But that would increase to $5,186,189 if the $1,641,000 rental figure is factored in, which Casey maintains is the only option that justifies its inclusion.
Option 5, to construct a new OCC for the Truro service is listed at $16,469,705 or $14,828,705 if the $1.6 million rental cost is removed.
A six option, to relocate the OCC to Millbrook, is listed at $6,421,750. But that would decrease to $4,780,000 if the Dartmouth rental costs were eliminated.
“What they’re saying is the Truro options have to pay for the empty space in Dartmouth if they decide to keep it empty,” Casey said. “They’re trying to manipulate the system and to do this assessment, to stack the deck is not fair. It’s just not fair to Colchester.”
