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RCMP First Contract

lenaitch

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I don't think this has been posted before, but if ratified, it looks like they have negotiated a pretty decent first contract that brings the RCMP members back in line with their peers and might help slow the bleeding.

 
There also seems to be a good piece of backpay with it my daughter tells me.

🍻
 
Still needs to be ratified... But there’s no reason to expect it won’t be.

RCMP pay has stagnated for years, and recruiting and retention have been suffering badly. Every year an RCMP member has stayed RCMP has come at a cost of $10k-$15k in contrast with what they could make with another police service- with many Mounties posted to areas with very limited opportunity for spousal employment, and many living in RCMP accommodations with no opportunity to build home equity.

This contract, or something like it, was an inevitability once the RCMP won the right to unionize in the Supreme Court in 2015.
 
Still needs to be ratified... But there’s no reason to expect it won’t be.

RCMP pay has stagnated for years, and recruiting and retention have been suffering badly. Every year an RCMP member has stayed RCMP has come at a cost of $10k-$15k in contrast with what they could make with another police service- with many Mounties posted to areas with very limited opportunity for spousal employment, and many living in RCMP accommodations with no opportunity to build home equity.

This contract, or something like it, was an inevitability once the RCMP won the right to unionize in the Supreme Court in 2015.
How do you see this impacting the future of contract policing? The cost to the provinces and municipalities will obviously rise, as the linked article points out. I know there has been talk out west for years of forming new municipal and/or provincial police services, likely cornerstoned by RCMP members who don't want to go elsewhere.

(My agency is going onto 4 years without a contract and the TB is playing hardball this time around. Hopefully this helps our negotiations.)
 
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Good for the RCMP rank and file!!!

I am not holding out hope that the RCMP case will help ours. We are the red headed step kids in the Law Enforcement Community. Especially in Manitoba where everything seems to be done on the cheap.
 
This contract, or something like it, was an inevitability once the RCMP won the right to unionize in the Supreme Court in 2015.
That's great news, Brihard.

Toronto police, fire and ambulance all unionized on three separate dates in 1917 and 1918. Just took the RCMP a little longer to get there.

The cost to the provinces and municipalities will obviously rise, as the linked article points out.
For reference to that discussion,
Escalating Emergency Services Labour Costs and the Ontario Taxpayers’ Ability to Pay
 
How do you see this impacting the future of contract policing? The cost to the provinces and municipalities will obviously rise, as the linked article points out. I know there has been talk out west for years of forming new municipal and/or provincial police services, likely cornerstoned by RCMP members who don't want to go elsewhere.

(My agency is going onto 4 years without a contract and the TB is playing hardball this time around. Hopefully this helps our negotiations.)
Anyone else looking to set up an alternate police service will still need to deal with the reality that they will have to pay competitively. RCMP contract policing is still 10% subsidized by the feds. RCMP still bring all their own institutional infrastructure. That’s damned hard to replace.

Best is to watch Surrey and see what happens there.

In Alberta, watch for increased shift of responsibility to the Sheriffs- and upwards wage pressure.
 
In Alberta, watch for increased shift of responsibility to the Sheriffs- and upwards wage pressure.
My wife's son is a CVSE officer in AB - this is happening a lot to his agency as they're shifting responsibility to other law enforcement/Sherriff operations. Suspicion is the government is trying to make their own lower cost provincial police service at the expense of the officers already employed...their pay hasn't changed in relation to levels of responsibility. They went from an unarmed agency to armed in the last year and a half, gone from a specialized agency to one with broader scope, have taken on Sherriff responsibilities and are spending more time in court than previously.

🍿
 
My wife's son is a CVSE officer in AB - this is happening a lot to his agency as they're shifting responsibility to other law enforcement/Sherriff operations. Suspicion is the government is trying to make their own lower cost provincial police service at the expense of the officers already employed...their pay hasn't changed in relation to levels of responsibility. They went from an unarmed agency to armed in the last year and a half, gone from a specialized agency to one with broader scope, have taken on Sherriff responsibilities and are spending more time in court than previously.

🍿
CBSA got a 17 percent raise after they armed. There are comparables that an arbitrator can use if their unions push that.
 
CBSA got a 17 percent raise after they armed. There are comparables that an arbitrator can use if their unions push that.
They've just been asked to take a rollback of a few percent, much like nurses and others in the province (except MLA's I'm sure)...
 
They've just been asked to take a rollback of a few percent, much like nurses and others in the province (except MLA's I'm sure)...
Alberta is going after a law enforcement salary rollback? Wow. That’s, uh... bold. That will kill any recruiting to a provincial police service right there. The nurse salary rollback is equally mind blowing.

Alberta had decades to build up sovereign wealth and to prepare for an economic transition. Yet they still remain without a provincial sales tax. Something’s gonna give, and I don’t think it’ll be nurse or law enforcement salaries.
 
Alberta is going after a law enforcement salary rollback? Wow. That’s, uh... bold. That will kill any recruiting to a provincial police service right there. The nurse salary rollback is equally mind blowing.

Alberta had decades to build up sovereign wealth and to prepare for an economic transition. Yet they still remain without a provincial sales tax. Something’s gonna give, and I don’t think it’ll be nurse or law enforcement salaries.
Now that PA's in Alberta are regulated, I've considered moving there so my wife can be nearer to her kids/grand kid, as well as my eldest being a Strat. Watching what's going on in health care there and elsewhere, I'm holding back...apart from there not being a lot of jobs currently. At their high rate of pay, I still would take about a $7-10/hr wage cut, assuming I'd get the high rate.
 
We are the red headed step kids in the Law Enforcement Community.
My opinion only, but I believe part-timers bring any organization down. Not referring to yours specifically. Don't know if you have them.

I worked part-time for Ontario Corrections many years ago. The impression I had was that you care more about your full-time career than your part-time or post-retirement gig.

RCMP, OPP and Metro Police do not have part-timers. My employer didn't either. Neither did TFS or TTC for that matter.
 
My friend who is a young Constable with 7 years in is stoked, a 20% pay raise with a young family is good news. I also told him that from now on he is buying the beers...

He works in Surrey, this really screws the new "Surrey PD" as pay was the only thing they had to offer over the RCMP, funny thing the new RCMP police union, copyrighted all the terms related to "Surrey Police Department", so Surrey had to buy those off of the union, a bit of a FU to the mayor.
 
Alberta is going after a law enforcement salary rollback? Wow. That’s, uh... bold. That will kill any recruiting to a provincial police service right there. The nurse salary rollback is equally mind blowing.

Alberta had decades to build up sovereign wealth and to prepare for an economic transition. Yet they still remain without a provincial sales tax. Something’s gonna give, and I don’t think it’ll be nurse or law enforcement salaries.
I've read that Alberta had the highest paid health care workers in the country which was mainly as a result of the booming resource sector and the government revenues that flowed from that. I believe most wages across the board in AB were just higher than the national average. With the resource sector being stifled and the loss of revenue/investment that came with that, it's no surprise there are rollbacks in areas that were typically higher than the national average.

I suppose AB could implement a provincial tax on everyone so healthcare workers in AB can still be paid higher than their peer groups everywhere else in the country... but I don't know how that would look to those being taxed.

Or another way of looking at it; resulting from LPC/NDP/Grn successful opposition to resource development, the wages in public sector jobs are rolled back to more normal national average levels due to lack of surplus revenue from a weakened energy economy.

I don't know which option is the least worst from an optics/vote getting standpoint.

I don't think the RCMP raise will hurt the movement for an Alberta Provincial Police force (like Que and Ont already have) but I'm sure glad they got the raise.
 
I've read that Alberta had the highest paid health care workers in the country which was mainly as a result of the booming resource sector and the government revenues that flowed from that. I believe most wages across the board in AB were just higher than the national average. With the resource sector being stifled and the loss of revenue/investment that came with that, it's no surprise there are rollbacks in areas that were typically higher than the national average.
As a PA, I'm paid more in MB than my equivalent in AB by about 7$/hour. My licensing fee in AB is more expensive than in MB - reason I haven't chosen to register there (unless I actually decide to move). The docs there have been in street fight with AHS for awhile after the minister unilaterally dissolved their master agreement. The nurses are facing a 3% rollback, though I had an enraged Tweet in my feed regarding a 3% clawback which was apparently a bit of BS...or maybe not.
 
Alberta is going after a law enforcement salary rollback? Wow. That’s, uh... bold. That will kill any recruiting to a provincial police service right there. The nurse salary rollback is equally mind blowing.

Alberta had decades to build up sovereign wealth and to prepare for an economic transition. Yet they still remain without a provincial sales tax. Something’s gonna give, and I don’t think it’ll be nurse or law enforcement salaries.
As frustrated as the rest of the country is about the above, I think I can safely say on behalf of other Albertans that we are equally mind-blown and significantly more pissed about our change of fortune! And yes, it absolutely is 'our fault' as a province.

On the one hand, we had decades of big money coming into government. At one point our provincial debt was paid off, and every single Albertan was receiving a cheque for $200 'just because'. We had plenty of time after that to look at the future, look at where the world was going, invest accordingly, and set ourselves up for success. While agriculture is a fairly steady industry, it doesn't bring in anywhere near the kind of money that oil does/did. (Having Saudi Arabia own the Canadian Wheat Board doesn't help...)

On the other hand, I don't think anybody foresaw the price of oil dropping as quickly/dramatically as it did - or a federal government that is openly hostile to the oil & gas industry. Those things could have been somewhat mitigated if we hadn't so arrogantly assumed "It's oil, this party is never going to end!" - and started investing/diversifying/planning for the future. The future just came a lot faster than anybody here suspected.


As for Alberta provincial law enforcement, we are slowly going in that direction. Just to clarify again - I am a peace officer, not a police officer. But I do work for SolGen (Solicitor Generals Office) who does run the Sheriffs, provincial Corrections, CVSE, and a variety of joint units. None of this is official, but I can echo a few of the posts made above:

- The Sheriffs Branch has had a traffic section for ages (Highway Patrol) who's #1 purpose - even if not publicly stated - is to issue violation tickets/summons, and generate revenue for the province. Yes, this does make the highways safer - but from the perspective of the provincial government, they like the revenue side.

- Sheriffs and RCMP have had joint units for ages also, throughout the province. This applies to traffic enforcement, but also at the higher levels with joint surveillance units, ASIRT, specialized investigation services, etc.

- The decision to arm CVSE officers was a good call, and one that is long overdue in my opinion. I did a practicum with CVSE while I was in school, and those officers find themselves in some extremely isolated areas, while working alone. Having the safety of a firearm if the need should arise is a good call, and guaranteed it will save someone's life over the next few years. (Plenty of stories internally on situations where CVSE being armed could have been extremely beneficial.)

^ It also makes sense to expand their scope somewhat, to be able to assist RCMP and Sheriff traffic units. I've witnessed first hand drivers driving erratically, plates registered as stolen, or random 'road situations' where they didn't have the mandate or support to do anything about it. All they could do was notify dispatch, and hopefully dispatch would call the local RCMP station & forward the message.

- Staff College trains a variety of provincial branches, most notably Sheriffs and Corrections. CVSE officers still do their training at Lethbridge College, if I am not mistaken? The CVSE branch does have an extremely thorough and impressive training program, I was quite surprised. (And truth be told, I probably couldn't pass it. The technical knowledge those officers have is pretty amazing.) They have also won several Canada/US competitions in their field.


Alberta isn't in a financial position to start up it’s own provincial police service. Expanding the duties or scopes of the services we do have is a good way to bolster enforcement & available units, without actually spending much money.

Having the Sheriffs focusing on traffic, for example, and able to make arrests on warrants & charge for more CC stuff is a good start. If CVSE is up for the tasks, all the better.

Our province does love to waste money. It’s mind boggling. But I think even the powers at me know we aren’t in a financial position to replace the RCMP with Sheriff Branch just yet. The fact that the feds pay 10% of the cost is a pretty attractive perk, too.
 
This is not the first time Albertans have prayed "Please God, give us another oil boom, and we promise this time we won't piss it away."
 
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