CARSTAIRS - Mayor Lance Colby and Greg Harris, Mountain View County's deputy reeve, met in town with RCMP officials on March 22 for preliminary discussions about the possible future creation of a Carstairs RCMP station.
“It was a preliminary meeting and it went well,” Colby said. “We had a lot of good discussions and overall it was very good.”
With Carstairs nearing the 5,000 population threshold, the parties are exploring the possibility of opening either a stand-alone building or a store-front location, he said.
In either case the new station would be part of the overall Didsbury RCMP detachment, he said.
Didsbury RCMP detachment commander Staff Sgt. Stephen Browne and RCMP Chief Superintendent Trevor Daroux from the Airdrie detachment met with Colby and Harris, both of whom are former Calgary police officers, as well as town staff.
“We discussed what the RCMP would need in the future,” he said. “Basically what we want to do is get an overall view of what their plans are, what they see happening, and what they are looking at as far as the size of detachment they would see here.
“It’s a matter of getting a heads-up and starting negotiations with them because we don’t want to start something and then get surprised on what we need to do.
The RCMP officers that currently patrol in Carstairs and area are based at the Didsbury RCMP detachment.
The town has already set aside land for a possible Carstairs station, he noted.
“It would probably be to the south of the new fire hall,” he said. “It will be a stand-alone station as far as we know, if that’s what they want. If they just want to have a store-front that would determine how big a building we would have to build.”
The Carstairs’ station would not be open until at least late 2023, he said.
The Town of Carstairs would construct the station, whatever form it ends up taking, and the RCMP would then lease it from the town, he said.
“That’s why it is important that we know the footprint,” he said. “If it is just going to be a three-member detachment, what can we do and what can we facilitate in that way.”
The Carstairs station itself would not have holding cells, he said.
“Didsbury is so close and they have cells,” he said. “We would just provide interview rooms and a secure room for when we bring people in.
“We’d have our own reception and clerk for people to come into the office to report accidents and whatever else.”
The RCMP seem open to suggestions and input from the town regarding the Carstairs station, he said.
“I was pleased that we were able to have that meeting and that everybody is willing to look at all angles of the policing aspect,” he said. “I was very pleased with the meeting, trying to get an idea of what they want and how they view the region, the policing of it.”
The RCMP will be “having their team sent out to review what we need and then we will meet again and decide what they want,” he said.
Deputy reeve Harris said the meeting was worthwhile and informative.
Having RCMP officers based in Carstairs would be helpful to county residents in the area, he said.
“It would benefit county residents in the area because if (RCMP officers) were able to respond from Carstairs it would certainly shorten the distance,” said Harris.
Asked if he foresees the county putting money into the new station, he said, “We haven’t been asked and it doesn’t look like that would be in the cards with the way the contracts are done now.”
During the March 28 council meeting mayor Colby made a verbal report on the March 22 meeting, which council accepted as information.
