KELOWNA – Construction has officially begun on a new headquarters for the Kelowna RCMP. The new facility, which being built at the intersection of Clement Ave. and Richter St., is expected to be complete in the spring of 2017.
Kelowna’s mayor and other dignitaries were on hand for a ceremonial groundbreaking at the site Wednesday morning.
The RCMP are looking forward to moving out of their aging downtown detachment and into the new facility once it is built.
“We’re going to be very excited to watch the building as it rises from the ground,” says Kelowna RCMP Superintendent Nick Romanchuck. “We’re in very crowded conditions. Our cell block has reached its best before date a long time ago. We have people working in the old cell block that’s really like a dungeon and we have one person that literally works in a closet.’
The new detachment is budgeted to cost $48-million.
“It’s part prison. It’s part forensic laboratory. It’s not your typical office building which makes it more expensive and more intricate to design,” Romanchuck says.
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The new facility is expect to consolidate the operations at the RCMP’s current downtown Kelowna detachment and Windsor Rd. location under one roof and will be double the size of those two existing RCMP facilities.
“We don’t believe this new building is too fancy,” says Kelowna mayor Colin Basran.
Basran argues the new detachment will be able to serve Kelowna for at least 50 years.
“We believe this building balances what’s needed now and what’s needed in the future,” he says.
– with files from Blaine Gaffney
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