scrubbedexpat091

MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-Op) has sold it's assets including most stores to a private equity company in Los Angeles, and MEC has been granted protection under Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, as they work to complete the deal.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/kingswoo...ding-1.1493903


MEC according to Globe & Mail had been relying on financing from syndicate of lenders led by RBC to operate, but the financing dried up on August 3.

scrubbedexpat091

Nothing like spending 300k on furniture during a pandemic, and not just furniture but high end designer-brand Herman Miller furniture.

Would think there would be suitable lesser cost furniture the city could purchase.

The mayor doesn't seem too happy about it either.

And it's not like they ordered it months before the pandemic, they were still ordering in May, a full month after the mayor claimed the city was broke.

Global News has confirmed that furniture was being ordered as late as May 2020 — a month after Vancouver Mayor Stewart warned the city was facing a financial crisis, and pleaded for a bailout from senior levels of government.

Global News.

caretaker

The RCMP are now going to investigate this dust-up in Red Deer. An anti-racism protest brought out the Sons of Odin and the boys from the bar.
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...-investigating

scrubbedexpat091

Last week (I think I posted it in random thread by error and not this one where I wanted) the Cleveland dam in Metro Vancouver unexpectedly had the spillway opened and massive amount of water went into the Capilano River, the water over 12 feet in a matter of minute or 2 and there was no warning to people downstream.

Looks like the preliminary investigation has found human error as the primary cause.

"While the review continues, we can now confirm that the clearest contributing factor was human error related to programming of the control system for the spillway gate at the Cleveland Dam," said Metro Vancouver Commissioner Jerry Dobrovolny. "Metro Vancouver takes responsibility for this mistake and our deepest sympathies go out to those affected by the tragic loss of life."

Full media release here.

scrubbedexpat091

Kelowna RCMP just racking up the lawsuits it seems.

"Kelowna RCMP officers have been named in at least half a dozen lawsuits this year, alleging excessive force and misconduct."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...orce-1.5782651


Sometimes I think the RCMP is just too corrupt and dysfunctional to exist, and should just exit local policing.

caretaker

Any of the cities that contract their policing out to the RCMP would probably have the same issues if they created their own forces, so it would make more sense to focus on improving the current service. One constable that likes to get heavy can be dealt with (can happen on any force). Body cams are expensive, (but cheaper than lawsuits), and independent bodies to review all brutality complaints in conjunction with internal investigations could become the norm. The RCMP has been through years of sexual harassment suits, inquiries into performance and failures after a bunch of high profile crimes, and several calls for the Commissioner to resign. Rather that thinking of it as corrupt for failing to get rid of a bully cop after his first incident and allowing it to happen again, I see the RCMP as having potential to improve through all that public disclosure. The old days and the old ways are gone. I had a friend who (back in the 70's) was stopped by a mountie on a grid road near his farm, and when the cop tried to push him around, he sucker-punched him, knocking him out cold, and just drove away leaving him laying in the gravel in front of his police car. The cop was too embarrassed to tell the guys in the detachment and they never came back for revenge. If there had been body cams and dash cams back then, he probably wouldn't have been pulled over, so it wouldn't have happened.

BristolUK

In my early days in Moncton there was a local forum and there was a small core of posters dead against RCMP and wanting an alternative. I remember they kept pointing to the cost of the local force per head, saying how much cheaper the non RCMP forces in the region were.

But by every measure used in solving crime the RCMP here were way ahead and with more officers here one could see crime was lower as well as quickly sorted when it happened.

They kept saying how the stats on crimes solved didn't necessarily mean they were actually solved - cases closed or some such. From what I read there was some truth in that but the recording method used was identical for all the forces compared so while the solving rate may not as been as high as claimed, so were all the other forces' rates.

It seemed like a good deal to me.

Former Lancastrian

Funnily enough in our negotiating sessions currently ongoing the 2018 salaries of other Police Forces are being used and the RCMP are nowhere near the top in salaries as an example

2018 statistics
RCMP 1st class constable $86,110 per annum
Edmonton $103,144
Saint John $94,627

http://psacunion.ca/sites/psac/files...ct_2020-en.pdf

BristolUK

To clarify, it wasn't the salary cost of an RCMP officer as against another I was referencing. When I said per head, I meant the general population. The cost of RCMP policing divided by the population was greater per head than in other areas using the same calculation for non RCMP.

caretaker

Rural detachments naturally have fewer people over a large area, and even though the members often max out their allowed overtime, that's considered more cost-effective than adding staff. When there are prisoners in the small detachments they hire guards from the Commissionaires because often there are no police at the station; they're all out working. If someplace has their own police force instead of the RCMP I think it's either because they're too big, too small, or not spread out enough.

Former Lancastrian

The type of policing you get is sometimes determined by how much a place is willing to pay for policing and some cant afford other options. The RCMP are the only Federal/National Police force in Canada. Outside of the major towns and cities it is the RCMP who do the policing except in Ontario and Quebec. Alberta are considering their own Provincial Police Force. Living in the North you have no option it's the RCMP or nothing.

scrubbedexpat091

In BC a fair amount if not all municipal forces have better pay and benefits, and they have higher hiring standards than RCMP does as well so they tend to get better qualified and educated applicants. Running joke in BC is, RCMP gets those who couldn't get hired anywhere else.

The RCMP doesn't even have a dedicated money laundering team, and money laundering is a major major issue in BC, then of course last year the director-general of the RCMP's National Intelligence Coordination Centre was arrested for allegedly trying to disclose classified material to a foreign entity or terrorist group and employees who worked under him say they had been complaining about his strange and controlling behavior to higher up's but nothing was ever done.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ort...view-1.5715951

https://globalnews.ca/news/7305881/r...cameron-ortis/

Add in the federal prosecutors screwing up, the biggest money laundering investigation ever in Canada collapsed because federal prosecutors released information to the defense that identified a police informant. No wonder money laundering is so rampant in Canada, almost makes you think at times if the RCMP and people within the federal government are being paid off. But Canada is quickly becoming if not already there a money laundering capital, close to the US, but has little enforcement against money laundering, it's like paradise for money launders and BC real estate is a prime target to clean dirty money.


https://globalnews.ca/news/4816822/e...ndering-probe/

2nd largest city in BC is considering going municipal police force, but not sure if it will ever turn into reality.

BC has the following municipal police forces, Surrey 2nd largest city in BC is considering going municipal, but its controversial.

Vancouver Police city population 675,218
New Westminister population 71,000
Delta population 110,000
Abbotsford population 150,000
Central Saanich population 17,000
Nelson population 11,000
Oak Bay population 18,000
Port Moody 33,500
Saanich 119,000
West Vancouver 43,000
Victoria/Esquimalt 117,000 (approx combined population)

Other police forces include, but are not part of a municipality

Stl'atl'imx Tribal Police Service

Southcoast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Serve aka Transit Police in metro Vancouver.

scrubbedexpat091

Seems to be a fair amount of commercial building fires lately.

The most recent a greenhouse that was used to grow marijuana before shutting down in March.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7435681/m...-c-greenhouse/

caretaker

I was a bit surprised that the crowd on Granville you posted last night wasn't on the national news then, but it was on this morning.

scrubbedexpat091

Halloween was a busy shift for Vancouver Fire Department.

In the 24 hours including Halloween, 295 calls about 30% more than a normal day, and 38 fires causing 450,000 in fire damage.

Vancouver Police were getting some heat yesterday for not dispersing the downtown crowd or issuing tickets, however VPD responded to 800 calls on Halloween along with multiple stabbings.

Halloween + full moon + last year for legal fireworks = total cluster, and I bet in 2 weeks time there will be a spike in COVID

Our area was super quiet, but West Kelowna isn't a very happening place.

Article here.