Traffic jam on RCMP car lots
Ban on sales of used RCMP vehicles triggers 'crush' program
A three-year freeze on the sale of used RCMP vehicles has created such huge storage headaches that the Mounties will have to start crushing the older cars and trucks at significant expense.
“Currently, without the reinstatement of vehicle sales, storage is no longer feasible and a massive ‘crush’ program will have to be instituted at cost,” RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme has warned the public safety minister, Dominic LeBlanc.
“The new requirement to crush the vehicles in order to dispose of them is having a negative impact on the environment.”
The warning comes in a Nov. 29 briefing note that asks LeBlanc for approval to remove the ban on all used-vehicle sales, which was imposed in January 2021 in the wake of the mass casualty shootings in Nova Scotia.
A gunman disguised as a Mountie shot and killed 22 people in the province in April 2020, initially near his posh cottage in Portapique. He drove a decommissioned RCMP patrol car which he had refitted to resemble the real thing.
Since the 2021 ban, used police vehicles have been overwhelming the RCMP’s own storage facilities. The overflow is filling up other government lots in places such as Winnipeg, Regina and two locations in Edmonton, including one operated by the military.
Some decommissioned vehicles are even being held at sites in Nunavut. “Limited space for storage is creating real challenges,” Duheme said in the briefing note, obtained under the Access to Information Act.
The Mounties are forfeiting about $13 million a year in lost sales on the 3,600 used vehicles that used to be sold annually. And monthly storage costs now amount to about $100,000.
Choking off the sales hurt the taxi industry, which had been a regular customer, Duheme said. “The negative impact on small operators has been exacerbated by the on-going global shortages in vehicles which has affected the used car industry.”
The note (PDF above) is the fourth time the RCMP has pressed the public safety minister to allow used-vehicle sales to resume. In the first attempts, the commissioner asked only that the ban be lifted on “non-purpose-built policing vehicles,” such as snowmobiles, ATVs, dirt bikes, trailers, etc. But the Nov. 29 note presses LeBlanc for a resumption of all sales, including former patrol cruisers.
A spokesperson for the RCMP says the suspension on the sale of all used vehicles remains in place, more than six months after Duheme’s latest plea to have it removed.
“There has been no decision to reinstate the sale of RCMP vehicles since sales were suspended on January 22, 2021,” said Sgt. Kim Chamberland in an email. She said even if the suspension were to be lifted immediately, the RCMP would need time to prepare the now large inventory for sale.
The Portapique gunman drove a Ford Taurus Interceptor Sedan, made specifically for police forces, which he had bought used for $10,900 through a government surplus agency. A wealthy man, he then spent some $15,000 to restore the original markings and equipment, including a push bar.
Bill Blair, the public safety minister who imposed the suspension in 2021, said at the time the move was to prevent criminal misuse. In addition to the Portapique killer, another Nova Scotia man had used a fake police cruiser in early 2021 to dupe victims.
The Mass Casualty Commission, which probed the 22 murders, called on the government to find “alternate avenues” for disposals, such as providing them to non-policing departments or offering them to the provinces.
Chamberland said the RCMP has strengthened its decommissioning process to prevent misuse, after internal and external reviews.
The RCMP took five months to deliver the six-page briefing note requested under the access act, three months beyond the legislated deadline.
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Dean Beeby, an independent Ottawa journalist, is author of Mass Murder, Police Mayhem (Formac), about the 22 Nova Scotia murders of April 2020.
Thanks Matt - this is quite a ridiculous situation, by a gov't that can't make decisions. I would love to see whatever documentation you have (I put a PDF of my documentation in the column itself). You seem to have more current numbers than I do. I commend you for staying on top of this file. - Dean
According to the records produced to me from a recent ATIP request, the 1,800 vehicles currently being stored in four provinces by Public Services & Procurement Canada, on behalf of the RCMP, is costing the RCMP over $600,000 per year in storage fees. I've been working on a project for months to have a number of these vehicles repurposed to emergency services agencies in Ukraine (where vehicles are desperately needed..... to save lives). The response I received from the RCMP Commissioner in May was that "the vehicles cannot be sent to Ukraine due to health & safety concerns related to the vehicles themselves".... meanwhile, the RCMP wants to return to selling these vehicles at public auction?