Moncton’s city council passed a vote to have the monument of the three fallen RCMP officers built on the bank of the Petitcodiac River and to share the cost with all three levels of government.
But the decision wasn’t unanimous.
“The decision council took was to place it on the riverfront,” said Catherine Dallaire with the city of Moncton. “Not all councillors agreed with that and I can certainly understand some of their thinking.”
Councillors Shawn Crossman, Paulette Theriault and Peirre Boudreau voted against it. They left council chambers without taking questions.
The total cost of the project will be around $750,000. The federal government is paying half, with the city and province sharing the other 50 per cent.
“Even the city's 25 per cent includes ‘in kind,’ so our actual cost - our out of pocket cost will be below $100,” said Dallaire.
Mayor George LeBlanc says the city’s contribution could be even less.
“It was in fact a little more than what we had budgeted for, so we expect we will be bringing it down to meet our budgetary abilities,” he said.
The city chose St.John’s, Nfld. artist Morgan MacDonald to create the bronze monument back in June.
City officials wanted the contract awarded as soon as possible so the monument can be completed for an unveiling scheduled for June 4 2016, which will be the second anniversary of the killing of the three Codiac RCMP officers.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis.
