Mr. Speaker, the government has raised taxes 60 times and has increased revenues by $40 billion yet at the same time it has cut millions from the RCMP budget.
Now there are only five vessels patrolling the entire coast of B.C. Patrol vessels in my riding are only operating every second week.
In Port Alberni two RCMP officers are leaving the detachment and will not be replaced. Special projects have been terminated. The three man drug squad has been put into general policing.
Last year all overtime was suspended. A drug squad that was working on a big case put in so much overtime that they had to shut them down for over four months because they could not pay the overtime. Informants are being paid with cigarettes and IOUs. Now the sources have dried up because there is simply no more money.
Clearly it is time for the government to make the RCMP a priority and restore RCMP funding.