Justin Bourque manhunt bill jumps to nearly $3M, RCMP say

The RCMP sent 435 officers from across the country to Moncton last June to respond to the fatal shooting of three of its officers, pushing the cost of the two-day manhunt to nearly $3 million.

The search for Justin Bourque that started on June 4 required 265 RCMP and 60 municipal officers from across Canada. An earlier access-to-information request pegged the cost for the manhunt at $1.2 million.

New figures in an updated access-to-information request show that after June 6, 116 more officers were required to replace Codiac RCMP officers who were given time off to grieve and meet with health professionals prior to their return to work.

For several months after citizens in Moncton would see RCMP patrol cars from Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island, often two officers per vehicle.

The help came mainly from New Brunswick, but also from Sault-Ste.-Marie, Ont., and the Toronto and Montreal airports, Parliament Hill and even the Northwest Territories for a total of 435 officers.

Here is the breakdown by province of where those officers came from:

• New Brunswick: 184
• Ontario: 80
• Nova Scotia: 77
• Quebec: 49​
• Prince Edward Island: 30
• Newfoundland and Labrador: 5
• British Columbia: 4
• Manitoba: 3
• Saskatchewan: 2
• Northwest Territories: 1

The $3 million price tag covers the overtime and travel for the Mounties, who travelled to Moncton.

The final RCMP officer, who was filling in, left at the end of September. However, it has been a slow return to work for some members of the Codiac RCMP.  

As of Feb. 5, the RCMP documents say there were still some Codiac members in the process of gradually returning to work.

There are also questions about what level of government will pay for the extra costs for the manhunt.

There's no provision in the contract between the City of Moncton and the RCMP that states who should pay for these costs.

Nick LeBlanc, the chair of the Codiac Regional Policing Authority, which is in charge of the local budget, is refusing to do interviews on the subject.

In October, LeBlanc sent a letter and has asked the provincial government to pay for all of the costs associated with the search for Bourque last June.

The provincial government told him to ask the federal government to pick up the tab instead.

There's no word on whether anybody besides the city will pay the $3 million.

In October, Bourque was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 75 years for killing the three RCMP officers and wounding two others. It was the longest sentence in Canadian history and the harshest since the death penalty was abolished.