RCMP stuck paying for Falkland fentanyl superlab cleanup

The cost of cleaning up Canada’s largest-ever clandestine fentanyl lab will go to the government agency responsible for dismantling it.

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The cost of cleaning up Canada’s largest-ever clandestine fentanyl lab will go to the government agency responsible for dismantling it.

Discovered in Falkland, B.C., last October, True North has reported extensively on the fentanyl superlab, which investigators said was capable of producing enough lethal doses of fentanyl to “kill every Canadian at least twice over.” It has resulted in only one arrest and no convictions.

Mounties are now saying they've also already accrued $3.6 million in costs associated with removing the deadly chemicals used to make fentanyl from B.C. drug labs—including the historic superlab in Falkland.

As reported by the Vancouver Sun’s Kim Bolan, that cost comes directly out of the RCMP’s operational budget—“meaning less cash for more investigations at a time when the federal government is asking the Mounties to cut two per cent from their budget over three years.”

Speaking on behalf of the RCMP, Assistant Commissioner David Teboul said his agency is footing the bill, in part, because they cannot leave the chemicals on-site “in good conscience”—given that they could “catch on fire or explode,” seriously injuring the public.

Teboul added that he raised the issue with Ottawa and also asked about special designated funding to cover the cost of removing the chemicals.

Currently, a private contractor handles the removal, and the RCMP foots the bill.

“The more labs we do, the more my bill for professional services, for the disposal, the transportation, the storage and the destruction of those chemicals goes up,” Teboul said.