Mounties awarded 8 per cent salary increase over 2 years

CBC
Fri, April 19, 2024 

Decision affects about 20,000 unionized members of the RCMP. (Troy Fleece/The Canadian Press - image credit)

Unionized RCMP officers are set to get a raise.

An arbitration decision this week awards an eight per cent increase over two years. The decision awards a four per cent increase retroactive to April 1, 2023, and another four per cent as of April 1 this year.

The increase will affect about 20,000 RCMP members across the country from constable to staff sergeant major represented by the National Police Federation.

Martin Potvin, a spokesperson for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, said in an email Friday that the government has great appreciation and respect for officers who make up the RCMP union.

"The RCMP operates in a policing environment where its members have skills easily transferrable to other police agencies," Potvin said.

"To retain this skilled and in-demand workforce, RCMP compensation must remain competitive."

Potvin said that once approved by the Treausry Board, the new collective agreement will still need to be signed by both sides and implemented.

A request for comment from the National Police Federation was not immediately returned.

The Mounties first collective agreement signed in 2021, but retroactive to 2017, included wage increases of 23.7 per cent over six years.

The union celebrated that contract as bringing Mountie pay more in line with municipal police forces across the country.

The rates of pay for an RCMP constable according to the collective agreement, signed in August. The rates for an RCMP constable under the first collective agreement signed in 2021. (Treasury Board Secretariat )

That contract expired March 31, 2023.

A Treasury Board of Canada website, which notes the sides were in arbitration, says negotiations began in January last year and that mediation had taken place earlier this year.

William Kaplan, chair of the arbitration board, wrote in the decision that the National Police Federation and Treasury Board of Canada had been able to resolve most issues.

The decision says "the bargaining relationship is positive and collaborative."

The increase was revealed by the commanding officer of the Codiac Regional RCMP at public meeting Thursday evening in Dieppe.

Supt. Benoit Jolette said the increase was roughly in line with what had been expected. He said Codiac, which polices Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview, had budgeted for a 7.5 per cent increase.

The RCMP's first contract and its retroactive increases led to municipalities across the country worrying about the financial impact.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities lobbied the federal government to cover the cost, though Ottawa opted not to do so.