Delta files motion to reinstate shipping port police

Delta’s mayor wants provincial and federal governments to help restore policing to ports in the Lower Mainland.

Delta City Council will introduce a resolution to the Union of BC Municipalities next month asking top officials to look into re-establishing a police department specifically dedicated to the waterfront shipping terminals.

Following a 2023 analysis, the city decree states that research should be conducted into a levy on shipping containers as a financing mechanism for the initiative.

The 2023 report, titled “Policing Our Ports,” notes that the Ports Canada Police was disbanded in 1997 and that the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority ended its financial contribution to the RCMP-led Waterfront Joint Forces Operation in 2015.

“This loss of police resources has weakened the security of Canada’s ports and allowed organized crime to proliferate,” a statement in the union’s 2024 resolution book said.

Delta Mayor George Harvie told 1130 NewsRadio the ports are a target for drug smuggling, both in and out of the country.

“It’s no surprise that such large quantities are coming in because the risk to the cartels and the gangs that are shipping these products into our country is very low. There is very little risk of them actually being caught,” Harvie said.

Author of ‘Policing Our Ports’ and money laundering crime expert Peter German points to record seizures of drugs being imported and exported.

He noted that in 2020, border authorities seized 106 kilograms of methamphetamine, worth $13.5 million, at Deltaport. Most recently, he said, 6,330 kilograms of methamphetamine destined for Australia was seized – with a street value then estimated at $1.5 billion.

“Of great concern is the reality that Canada, once a source country for marijuana, nicknamed ‘BC bud,’ is now producing deadly drugs for export,” German said.

Harvie says he does not want taxpayers to foot the additional costs of policing the ports.

“We should have the container industry funding this at a very meagre $15 (per) container. That would provide more than enough funding that would be sustainable to have a solid law enforcement agency that makes sure that the ports are not just open to cartel or gang business, but that there are good, solid measures in place to make sure that drugs can be intercepted and found and people can be prosecuted,” Harvie said.

The Union of BC Municipalities resolution meetings are scheduled for September 18-20.