Last year's Kelowna city budget approved the hiring of 4 more RCMP officers. It's taken a while, but all the approvals required are finally in and the search has begun to find the right people with the experience wanted by the Kelowna detachment.
RCMP Superintendant Brent Mundle explains that it takes time because part of the policing agreement with the federal governement is that they pay 10 percent of the cost of each police officer. As a result, the federal goverment has to approve new hires.
Former Superintendant Bill McKinnon recommended the hiring of still more Mounties to patrol our streets and highways, a prospect Mundle would be most pleased to see.
By the way, the old RCMP detachment downtown is finally coming down. Machinery has been on site since yesterday doing the demolition.