Ottawa Citizen - October 10, 2011
By Colin Kenny
Eight Canadian provinces purchase RCMP policing at a discount – the federal government loses a big chunk of change on these deals. Last week British Columbia was threatening to set up its own provincial police force if the province didn’t get an even better deal.
The feds called British Columbia’s bluff, walking away from the table where a new 20-year policing contract was being negotiated.
A solution to the dispute now seems to be in the making. After all the histrionics, both sides are talking nice in public now, as though two life partners had simply had a momentary spat on bill-paying day that will quickly be forgiven and forgotten.
But make no mistake: the renewal of the vows that come out of this process will look a lot more like the feds’ original offer than British Columbia’s demands for concessions.
Why? First, because the federal government can’t afford to set precedents for three territories and seven other provinces, two of which (Alberta and Saskatchewan) have just signed new 20-year deals that they have the right to reopen to match any better deals that are made.
Secondly, the province’s negotiators know that the RCMP arrangement offers British Columbians a much better deal than establishing a provincial police force. Fewer police forces make for better policing.The RCMP provides nation-wide support in the fight against crime in the province. Furthermore, the costs of establishing a new provincial force would be prohibitive, particularly at a time of financial restraint.
Think about all that recruiting, the new bureaucracy that would be required, the establishment of new systems, the purchase of new equipment – none of this comes cheap. Nor would there likely be significant savings on salaries and pensions. Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu makes more than $300,000 a year; RCMP Commissioner Bill Elliott has a lot more responsibility for considerably less money.
About a third of the contract policing that the Mounties do is done in British Columbia. Communities of fewer than 15,000 people receive a 30 percent discount on the cost of providing services; communities with larger populations receive a 10 percent discount. In 2010 Ottawa picked up $184 million of the $992 million spent on RCMP contract policing in British Columbia.
Why does the federal government subsidize policing in every province but Ontario and Quebec, which have their own provincial police forces? That’s a good question. There are at least a couple of pretty good answers. Contract policing provides RCMP officers who later go on to federal postings with invaluable front line experience. And doing front line policing in eight provinces provides far more effective policing for all Canadians, because it is easier to exchange information within one organization than it is to share it among many organizations.
The provinces should of course be concerned about policing costs. But the RCMP runs a tight ship compared to some other forces. For example, it polices the City of Surrey with one officer for every 723 residents, compared to the one officer per 499 residents employed by the the Vancouver Police Force. In placid Victoria, the ratio is one officer for every 425 residents. The government of British Columbia knows that if it were to switch to its own model for policing in all communities, with the personnel its unionized forces demand, costs would skyrocket. The RCMP does more with less (although at a huge cost in terms of stress to its officers). That may change if the RCMP eventually unionizes (a bill to allow that died in the last federal Parliament), but right now the RCMP is one heck of a deal when it comes to costs.
If British Columbia wants more input into the way the RCMP polices the province, it might wish to shift its focus and tackle issues such as when Tasers should be used, and how public complaints are handled.
When it comes to the cost of RCMP policing, taxpayers in Ontario and Quebec have far greater reason to complain about costs than taxpayers in British Columbia. As noted earlier, Ontario and Quebec have their own provincial police forces. So they don’t benefit from the subsidized RCMP policing in the other eight provinces and the three territories. But they help pay for it – at a time that their economies aren’t exactly booming.
Did I hear a big thank you for Ontarians and Quebecers from all those other provinces and territories? I didn’t think so. But it’s long overdue.
[Colin Kenny is former chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence. kennyco@sen.parl.gc.ca]