Langley Township Mayor Eric Woodward said the de-integration of Langley's shared RCMP detachment into City and Township units is now a done deal, while City Mayor Nathan Pachal continued to argue that the change needs provincial approval.
On the weekend, the Township announced that two years after declaring it was starting a de-integration process, it had officially taken over the full ownership of the local RCMP headquarters in Murrayville.
On Monday, just before hearing a report on local policing at the council meeting, Woodward made a statement saying the de-integration was now complete.
"I can confirm for council and the public that as of May 10, 2025, the integrated Township of Langley and City of Langley RCMP detachment is now officially de-integrated," Woodward said.
The RCMP were now moving forward with plans to achieve two autonomous detachments, Woodward said.
"The Township of Langley did not, and does not, require the City of Langley's consent to de-integrate. Approval from the RCMP, nor the province, is required," he added.
Woodward referred to an April 4 letter from Glen Lewis, an assistant deputy minister in the Ministry of Public Safety and the Solicitor General.
The letter confirms the Township's view that the province can't stop the Township from terminating its policing agreement with Langley City. It also says that the Minister of Public Safety and the BC RCMP commanding officer "must ultimately agree to changes in the organizational structure of the RCMP Service in B.C."
In the next paragraph, the letter says that "de-integration will occur pursuant to the termination notice provided by the Township to end the shared policing agreement."
That letter was followed by an April 25 message to both mayors from Premier David Eby, which strongly urged the Township not to go forward with de-integration.
"While I acknowledged that the province is not a party to these agreements between the City and the Township, I am disappointed that the City and the Township have been unable to find another way to resolve this dispute," Eby wrote.
The premier's letter went on to say he was concerned about a movement towards de-integration of policing services.
"De-integration will require significant additional taxpayer dollars for building new infrastructure that is unlikely to have any material impact on the quality or effectiveness of policing in the region," Eby wrote.
He asked that the City and Township work with the province through mediation or arbitration to create a path forward.
Woodward told the Langley Advance Times that the Township appreciated the letter, and did reconsider, but decided to proceed.
The Township mayor said the City's position was unprecedented.
"De-integration is occurring, this has been put in writing to them," he said.
Pachal told the Langley Advance Times that the City's position is still that the provincial government has the final say on the matter.
"The premier has basically asked us to come to the table," Pachal said, and the City has responded to that letter saying it would be happy to take part in mediation.
So far, the City has not been working on transition plans nor policing resource requirements, while the Township has created those plans and sent them to the RCMP.
If de-integration is enforced, then the City would have to create a plan, get that approved by the province, and start moving through the process, Pachal said.
According to a May 9 letter to both communities from RCMP's E Division, which oversees all RCMP in B.C., planning is underway for what the letter calls "a potential de-integration."
The RCMP is now tracking a number of policing expenses separately between the Township and the City.
For the near future, City RCMP officers will still work out of the Township-based detachment building, but the City will pay rent and fees for the space and services it uses.
At present, the City only has a small Community Police Office, and does not have separate civilian staffing, nor its own commanding officer and command structure for a separate RCMP detachment.
Pachal admits that the two communities do need a new agreement, whether that's an interim one or a longer-term contract.
It would take years for the City to build or renovate a location for its own detachment headquarters.
Pachal notes that the creation of the Pitt Meadows RCMP detachment, independent of the shared Ridge Meadows detachment, has taken about eight years.
Woodward said he believed the creation of two detachments could happen relatively quickly, and re-iterated that the City's policing has been subsidized by the Township for years.
The two Langleys have had a shared RCMP detachment for decades, but have often butted heads over whether each side was paying their fair share.
The Township has long pointed to higher call volumes in the busy downtown City areas, saying the City was absorbing more policing resources than it was paying for. The City, however, pays for more officers per capita than the Township does in the combined detachment.
Woodward and his majority slate on council announced the de-integration plan shortly after taking office in 2022.
