RCMP used-vehicle sales partially resume
But sales moratorium on retired patrol cars remains, after 2020 Nova Scotia mass murder
The former Public Safety minister, Dominic LeBlanc, gave RCMP the green light to start selling some of its used vehicles, partially ending a 2021 moratorium that left Mountie car lots jammed with decommissioned cars.
LeBlanc’s approval was issued Dec. 9, almost four years after sales were suspended in the aftermath of the Nova Scotia mass murders, in which a gunman meticulously refitted a used RCMP patrol car to closely resemble the real thing.
The gunman raced through northern Nova Scotia in April 2020, stopping frequently to kill neighbours and passers-by confused by his use of a replica Mountie cruiser. Twenty-two people died, including an RCMP officer and a pregnant woman, before police shot and killed the perpetrator.
An investigation showed the wealthy gunman had bought a used RCMP patrol car from the government for $10,900, then spent $15,000 retrofitting it to look genuine.
The RCMP revamped its vehicle-recycling protocols and tightened security, but a broad moratorium remained in place, creating massive storage and financial headaches. The RCMP forfeited about $13 million annually in sales, filled its own storage lots to overflowing, secured new lots, and eventually began crushing its retired cars for lack of space.
The government rebuffed at least three earlier requests from the force to resume sales, but relented somewhat after a fresh RCMP request on Nov. 12 last year.
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme pitched a compromise solution, asking LeBlanc for approval to resell vehicles that were not “purpose built” for police work or were never fitted up for patrols.
Duheme also proposed selling used RCMP snowmobiles, ATVs, dirt bikes, trailers and boats, as well as tires, seats and consoles.
“The RCMP assesses this approach to be low risk, and would help mitigate some of the pressures that the suspension of sales is having on the RCMP,” he wrote.
A copy of Duheme’s briefing note with LeBlanc’s formal approval was obtained under the Access to Information Act, and is available here:
The moratorium still applies to former patrol vehicles, that is, police versions of the Ford Taurus, Explorer, F-150, Expedition, Dodge Charger or Durango, and the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban. These vehicles now will be destroyed rather than stored.
“Vehicle storage is no longer being considered a viable option and therefore upon the end of the useful life of the vehicles … and once other divestment options such as transfer or donation have been exhausted, these vehicles will be crushed,” says the note.
Duheme said the force would prefer to sell all these decommissioned vehicles, including to the taxi industry, which had been a regular customer.
Even with the partial lifting of the moratorium, “there will be delays in implementation until Spring 2025 in locations already impacted by winter conditions.”
An RCMP spokesperson said last June that the force was paying about $100,000 a month for storage.
LeBlanc was replaced as Public Safety minister on Dec. 20 by David McGuinty, and continues as finance minister.
___
Dean Beeby, an independent Ottawa journalist, is author of Mass Murder, Police Mayhem (Formac), about the 22 Nova Scotia murders of April 2020.