New BrunswickA town councillor who couldn’t vote on a controversial $66.5-million police budget last month has led to a heated Riverview council meeting, calls for an apology and a review of the regional police board.Town seeks apology after councillor unable to cast vote on 2026 plan to hire 15 more officers Shane Magee · CBC News · Posted: Oct 17, 2025 12:47 PM EDT | Last Updated: 43 minutes agoCodiac Regional Policing Authority board members Nagesh Jammula, Corinne Godbout and Matt Carter shown voting against the 2026 budget on Sept. 11. A Riverview councillor was unable to cast a vote at the meeting. (Shane Magee/CBC)A town councillor who couldn’t vote on a controversial $66.5-million police budget last month has led to a heated Riverview council meeting, calls for an apology and a review of the regional police board.At issue is a Sept. 11 Codiac Regional Policing Authority meeting where the civilian board overseeing Codiac RCMP narrowly approved a 2026 budget by a 5-4 vote.That budget calls for Riverview, Dieppe and Moncton to spend $9.5 million more and add 15 more Mounties. Riverview’s share of the increase is about $1 million. The budget is at odds with council motions saying no additional officers will be approved without crime data that has yet to be gathered. There’s been enough cloak and dagger shenanigans here.- Riverview Deputy Mayor Jeremy ThorneJohn Coughlan, a Riverview councillor who has represented the town on the board for almost a decade, wasn’t able to vote on the budget. Moncton and Dieppe councillors on the board voted against the budget.“The decisions or votes during that meeting, in my opinion, are null and void because we didn’t have our representative at that meeting,” Riverview Deputy Mayor Jeremy Thorne said during a Riverview council committee meeting Wednesday.“There’s been enough cloak and dagger shenanigans here. I believe we need to do an external review on the CRPA and contact the minister of local governance, Aaron Kennedy to do a review.”Appointment issueThe dispute over Coughlan’s participation comes down to whether he had been reappointed in time. The town’s mayor says he notified the policing authority that Coughlan was reappointed, but the board took the phrasing to mean he would be reappointed in the future and therefore couldn’t take part in the debate and vote.The dispute went public Wednesday as the policing authority board chair, Don Moore, presented that 2026 budget to Riverview council. Once the policing authority votes on the budget, the spending plan goes to the three municipalities to include in their own budgets. Don Moore, chair of the Codiac Regional Policing Authority board, shown during the Sept. 11 meeting. (Shane Magee/CBC)Moore said he couldn’t discuss what happened with Coughlan, saying it was part of a closed-door meeting.“That’s a fully unacceptable answer, Mr. Moore,” Coun. Heath Johnson replied. Johnson said if Moore wouldn’t answer, he would keep talking and the public could judge. Moore asked the mayor to intervene. “I’m not going to take these insults,” Moore said “I don’t appreciate this. This is very combative.”Mayor Andrew LeBlanc said legitimate questions could continue. Your privacy, to me, is bull and that we are the ones that are paying this bill.- Riverview Coun. Wayne BennettSeveral councillors questioned the transparency, accountability and governance of the policing authority. Several referenced the town seeking data to back up spending decisions that haven’t been provided. “It just seems to me that we deserve more from you as a team,” Coun. Wayne Bennett said. “Your privacy, to me, is bull and that we are the ones that are paying this bill, the tri-community, and we deserve more from you. We deserve the data we’ve asked for for the last five years.”The mayor said council support the police force, but want the data to be accountable to taxpayers.The data issue led to councils in Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview earlier this year passing similar motions. The motions say “prior to any future substantial Codiac Regional Policing Authority budget requests, including further staffing increases, being proposed,” the board must provide the communities data showing the impact that adding 17 officers in 2025 had on crime. That data has yet to be gathered. Moore said the policing authority decided to proceed with the additional hires without the data requested because of a consultant’s report, which he acknowledged he hasn’t been able to fully review, that called for adding 46 officers over three years. We don’t want to just be an average police force.- Policing authority chair Don MooreMoore also acknowledged Codiac RCMP had in July sought a smaller increase, only four more officers, but the policing authority board opted to proceed with the larger request which would start a traffic unit.“We don’t want to just be an average police force,” Moore said at the meeting. “We want to make sure we have a great police force doing the work that we’re supposed to be doing.”As the Riverview meeting unfolded Wednesday, multiple councillors called for the board to apologize to Coughlan. The mayor asked for an apology in an email to Moore the day after the vote.No plan to apologizeNo apology has been made, and Moore told CBC News on Thursday “I’m not aware that we’re planning to do such.”Coughlan declined to comment.The mayor in the email, which the town provided to CBC, also suggested the budget vote was invalid “given the abdication of procedural process and that a board member was prohibited from voting.”Moore said he considers the vote valid. LISTEN | Riverview council upset over police budget:Information Morning – Moncton16:52Some Riverview town councillors say they won’t accept the Codiac Regional Policing Authority’s budget for 2026Andrew LeBlanc is the mayor of Riverview. Don Moore is the chair of the Codiac Regional Policing Authority.Several councillors said what’s unfolded would result in their voting down the policing budget later this fall. Moore is scheduled to present the policing budget to Dieppe council Monday, and Moncton council in early November.If the councils don’t approve the policing budget, the Police Act sets out that the province’s local government minister can step in and set a budget. Both LeBlanc and Moore told CBC they hope that step won’t be needed.ABOUT THE AUTHORShane Magee is a Moncton-based reporter for CBC News.
Riverview roiled over ‘cloak and dagger shenanigans’ that blocked its vote on $66M police budget
