Despite the fact that renovations for the Niverville RCMP detachment are now complete, Media Relations Officer Corporal Melanie Roussel says the office is still months away from opening.
“The Niverville detachment will have one corporal and three constables,” Roussel says. “These positions have already been staffed.”
But there is still one administrative position, a public service staffer, that has yet to be filled.
“A public service employee is hired by the RCMP, so it is a federal government position,” Roussel says. “Therefore, the process can take some time as they need to select a candidate from a large bank of candidates. Once candidates have been identified, they have to be interviewed. The selected candidate needs to have a background check and proper training completed prior to the opening of the front counter at the Niverville detachment. This can take months to complete.”
Even with the delay, the Town of Niverville has been paying significantly higher policing fees since April 2023. At that time, the cost of RCMP services jumped from $200,000 annually to $650,000.
This increase was not a direct result of having a local detachment. It was the result of Niverville hitting the 5,000-resident benchmark, which the town was shown to have exceeded at the time of the 2021 census.
The addition of a local police detachment was the result of a proactive municipal council that believed, if the town was paying the extra money anyway, they may as well benefit from a local office with officers onsite.
Regardless of whether the new hires are stationed in Niverville or St. Pierre-Jolys, the hope is that Niverville and the surrounding area may already be benefitting from some added police patrolling when they are not called elsewhere in the jurisdiction.
