August 15, 2025
RED FM News Desk
British Columbia’s public safety minister has requested federal government assistance to help pay the multi-million dollar bill for cleaning up fentanyl and methamphetamine labs uncovered in recent months.
Postmedia recently revealed that the RCMP’s federal policing program in B.C. is on the hook for a $3.6 million bill to remove dangerous chemicals found in several illegal labs, including a record-setting operation in Falkland last October. Asst. Commissioner David Teboul said that paying this substantial bill from the RCMP’s operational funds would mean fewer investigations in the province.
In a statement, David Karn, a spokesperson for the B.C. Environment Ministry, confirmed that a letter was sent to the federal government on May 23. It “asked it to consider alternative funding arrangements supplemented by the expertise at Health Canada to cover costs for the safe cleanup of criminal drug labs so police can focus their efforts on further enforcement.”
Karn explained that while the ministry has covered its own costs for cleanups in the past, the Environmental Management Act “does not provide a mechanism for the ministry to retroactively reimburse third-party agencies like the RCMP for their incurred costs.”
Conservative MP Frank Caputo, the party’s critic for public safety, weighed in with his concerns. In an interview on Thursday, he said the federal government’s lax approach to the fentanyl crisis has led to the rise of synthetic drug labs in the province. Caputo, who was a prosecutor before being elected, added that while tools like civil forfeiture proceedings and restitution orders exist to eventually recoup costs, they don’t provide a short-term solution for the RCMP’s massive bill.
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