The mayor of Delta, B.C., is calling for the reinstatement of a dedicated police force to patrol Canadian ports, which he says are a well-known conduit for guns, drugs and stolen cars.
In an interview, George Harvie said he respects the work the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) does, but that its officers are under-resourced.
He pointed to last week’s announcement of a historic methamphetamine bust to highlight the scale of the problem, and just how creative smugglers are.
CBSA officers seized more than 6,330 kilograms of liquid crystal meth hidden in more than 400 canola oil jugs bound for Australia in that operation.
“We desperately need port police, as chair of Delta Police Board I can say the intelligence we have, we know fentanyl is coming in, illegal weapons are coming in, stolen cars are going out and other items,” he said.
“It’s time, especially with the announcement we’re doubling the port volume and doubling the size of the port, its time now that Canada now reinstate some form of significant police presence at the port here in Delta and also in Vancouver.”
The federal government eliminated the Ports Canada Police more than 25 years ago, and the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority does not provide funding for local police dedicated solely to enforcement at the ports.
In a statement, the port authority said it coordinates security efforts with more than two dozen police and regulatory agencies with mandates covering the port, and works with both the RCMP and CBSA.
It added that it has spent “millions of dollars over the years” securing federal port lands, including the installation of secure access gates and security cameras and maintaining a fleet of port security boats and security personnel.
But the lack of a dedicated police force has left a security vulnerability, according to the second volume of former RCMP commissioner Peter German’s 2019 Dirty Money report on B.C. money laundering.
“Since the demise of the Ports Canada Police in 1997, it has been left to municipal police to patrol docks and ports. In the post-911 world this is a serious gap in our law enforcement umbrella,” German wrote.
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“The comparison to Seattle is stark, where the Port of Seattle Police Department has 150 staff to police SeaTac Airport and the Seaport, including numerous specialized units.449 In addition, U.S. federal authorities are present at the ports, including border patrol, customs officers, and others.”
Harvie, too, compared Metro Vancouver to Seattle, and said he was organizing an information-gathering trip for the region’s mayors and police chiefs to tour the neighbouring city’s port and security arrangements.
Harvie said the push for port police has the support of the region’s mayors as well as the Union of B.C. Municipalities, and he’s hoping to lobby the federal government to make it a reality.
“We need the federal government to wake up and make this a requirement on Port Metro Vancouver to put some kind of security system in that’s going to look after the problems that are just operating openly now,” he said.
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