VICTORIA, B.C.: With just 43 days until the FIFA World Cup kicks off in Vancouver, the BC NDP government has released no plan and no accounting of costs for one of the largest events in British Columbia’s history. MLA Macklin McCall, Critic for Solicitor General & Public Safety, is demanding transparency so British Columbians can enjoy these events safely and with confidence.

“Six weeks out from one of the biggest events in BC history, this government has no plan, no cost breakdown, and still cannot answer the most basic question a government can be asked: how are you going to keep families and businesses safe?” says McCall.

“The NDP government has been so silent on FIFA management that British Columbians have had to get their information from the Federal government and news outlets, meanwhile, the Opposition has been asking this government for months with no details,” added McCall.

But funding shortfall is only part of the problem. Beneath the funding gap sits a policing crisis years in the making. “The NDP have not added a single provincial RCMP officer since 2012, and now every RCMP detachment across B.C. are being asked to give up officers to staff the World Cup,” says McCall. “This government’s mismanagement does not just affect Vancouver. Every community losing an officer to FIFA is a community this government has made less safe.”

On top of that, the NDP also failed to apply for federal major event status, a designation specifically made to bring federal security dollars to provinces hosting events of this scale. “Tens of millions of dollars in dedicated security funding were on the table and within reach. All the government had to do was communicate. They didn’t, and now British Columbians are left footing the bill,” says McCall.

McCall said that the NDP’s pattern of failures speaks for itself. “This is what NDP mismanagement looks like. A province preparing to host hundreds of thousands of visitors with no public security plan, secrecy where there should be transparency, gaps where there should be a plan, communities across the province made less safe, and British Columbians left with no explanation.”

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Media Contact:
Francesca Guetchev, Press Secretary
Francesca.Guetchev@leg.bc.ca
+1 (672) 922-0948