At their meeting on March 5, 2026, Colwood Council endorsed moving forward with detailed design for the West Shore RCMP Facility Expansion project, including providing consent to establish a Capital Regional District (CRD) sub-regional service that will coordinate borrowing for the project on behalf of the three joint owners: Colwood, Langford, and View Royal.
Quote from Colwood Mayor Doug Kobayashi:
"As joint owners, the three municipalities of Colwood, Langford and View Royal have the shared goal of providing a purpose-built detachment to support vital RCMP operations into the future, and are working together to ensure we make informed, prudent financial decisions on behalf of the taxpayers we serve.”
As the largest municipal infrastructure project undertaken on the West Shore, this project has many complex and unique features. Beyond being a 25-year, $103 million financial commitment, it involves joint ownership by three municipalities, CRD as the borrowing authority and interim titleholder, and a multi-party governance structure.
Before advancing the project, Colwood Council took several steps to ensure due diligence on behalf of taxpayers. This included awaiting the full redacted Validation Report, obtaining a Quantity Survey to validate unit costs and escalation assumptions, and an Independent Review to confirm the project estimates, governance, risk, contingency frameworks and long-term financial sustainability.
The initial Council-facing Validation Summary Report did not include the expected level of detail. While it is understood that certain RCMP operational details must be redacted to protect operational security and non-disclosure requirements, more detail has now been provided to decision makers about non-sensitive project scope, schedule, and cost breakdowns.
In addition, the Independent Review report recommends incorporating “guardrails” into the MOU to manage the inherent risks and reduce taxpayer exposure as the project proceeds. This includes measures such as clearly defining the project scope and implementing a change control process, confirming costs, adopting a risk register, strengthening communications, engaging a IPD coach to reinforce best practices, and confirming the lifecycle and operating implications once the facility is complete.
The three municipalities continue to meet regularly to advance the project, address project challenges, and implement shared path forward, supported by strengthened project guardrails and regular public reports with respect to project scope, schedule, cost, and risk at key project milestones throughout detailed design and construction.
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Media contact
Sandra Russell, Communications Manager
srussell@colwood.ca
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