Following the decision of the Treasury Board in December 2008, that the promised wage package would not be delivered, your SRRs took immediate action to raise concerns with the government, MPs and the public.

With the help of the Mounted Police Members’ Legal Fund, the SRR Program launched a website entitled CallForBackup.ca. Through this website, and with your help, we spread the word that this rollback was unacceptable. Thousands of signatures from concerned members and clients were captured on a petition, and a majority of MPs received personal letters from constituents about this issue. Many of you went the extra mile and contacted your riding MPs directly, demanding action. On top of this, an application for judicial review by the Federal Court was actioned on our behalf by the Mounted Police Members’ Legal Fund.

Since December 2008, the SRR National Executive and Chair of the SRR Pay & Benefits Committee, S/Sgt. Gord Dalziel, approached and met with numerous ministers, including the Minister of Public Safety, Peter Van Loan, and the President of the Treasury Board, Vic Toews. While in Ottawa for the SRR Caucus in February 2009, all SRRs attended Question Period at the House of Commons to show solidarity and voice their opposition to the pay rollback, a first for this group.

 Unfortunately, despite all of this, legislation was passed in Parliament restricting wage increases for unionized and non-unionized employees in the federal public sector, including our members as well as members of the Canadian Forces and the Public Service.

However, the efforts of the National Executive, S/Sgt. Gord Dalziel, individual SRRs and members from across the country to raise the awareness of our concerns in relation to recruitment and retention were not totally in vain. The Expenditure Restraints Act (Bill C-10) contained a provision permitting allowances for the RCMP to help in transformation, including implementing the Brown Task Force recommendations.

The SRR Program, S/Sgt. Gord Dalziel, along with members of the Senior Executive Committee worked with the Pay Council to develop options for allowances. Regular members will receive a .5% increase in service pay for every five years of service up to and including 35 years of service. For the first time, some civilian members (the LES group - Telecoms Operators and Intercept Monitors) will receive 1.5% service pay for every five years of service up to and including 35 years of service. This new/additional service pay is pensionable and based on your annual salary.

A new policy for standby pay has also been announced. This is long overdue but we now have a policy that should be consistently applied across the country. These allowances, the Immediate Operational Readiness (IOR) and Operational Availability (OA), will assist members who are required to be immediately deployed and the many who are required to support operations. Once we receive more specifics in relation to the standby policy, we will provide our comments in a separate communique.

 Our thanks go out to the Commissioner and members of the SEC, the government, Treasury Board and many members from various political parties for their support. A special thank you to all of the members, employees, families and our collective friends who assisted us in this endeavour. The SRRs will continue to work on behalf of all members to address other issues of concern.

 Gord Dalziel, Chair
SRR Pay & Benefits Committee

Last Updated: Wednesday, February 4, 2009 | 6:42 PM ET CBC News

A unilateral decision to cut a promised raise for RCMP members could have implications for the force’s attempts to attract and retain members, about 40 Mounties said on Parliament Hill on Wednesday. 

“[The Conservative government] come across as the law-and-order government but they’re not supporting the major arm of the law enforcement in the country, which is surprising to us,” said Staff Sgt. Bob Meredith. “It’s confusing to us. We don’t understand it.” 

In June, the federal government committed to a 3.5 per cent raise for RCMP members in 2009 followed by a two per cent hike in 2010. 

But in December, without consulting the RCMP, the Treasury Board cut the raise to 1.5 per cent for both years. It puts the members in line with the wages paid to all other public service unions. 

With the rollback, the RCMP now ranks at about 34th in terms of pay out of Canada’s 80 police forces with 50 members or more. An RCMP constable in his first year earns about $46,000. 

The reduced raise could mean it will be harder to retain older Mounties and to attract new officers, Meredith said. 

About 3,500 Mounties are on the cusp of retirement. 

“I think they’re being treated the same as all other civil servants,” Conservative MP Gary Breitkreuz told CBC News. 

Meredith said RCMP members have been emailing and phoning their MPs about the issue for weeks. A delegation of 40 members was sent to Ottawa on Wednesday to directly present the issue to elected representatives on Parliament Hill. 

“We understand that times are tough but this is about trust as well and right now that trust has been broken and our members are very, very disgruntled by that,” Meredith said. 

Some RCMP members have set up a website, Callforbackup.ca, with the support of the RCMP Staff Relations program and the Mounted Police Members’ Legal Fund, to press the government on the issue. 

According to the website, the rollbacks won’t just make it more difficult to attract new recruits, but could ultimately have implications for Canada’s public safety. 

‘Fair share’

NDP MP Jack Harris pressed Treasury Board President Vic Toews on the issue during question period on Wednesday. 

“How is it this prime minister has millions of dollars to stack the unelected Senate with Conservative friends but not enough for an RCMP wage hike that they were granted by Treasury Board last June?” Harris asked. 

Toews said in the current economy, cuts are necessary. 

“Everyone is being asked to do their fair share to manage government expenditures,” he said. 

That shouldn’t mean breaking promises, Liberal public safety critic Mark Holland said. 

“There was a promise and a commitment made and is now been broken and I think that the government is taking advantage of the fact that the RCMP does not have a union and really steamrolling over them,” Holland said. 

The Mounties have filed an application with the Federal Court to review the decision to quash the raise. 

Force members can’t unionize and compensation changes are determined by a five-member RCMP Pay Council, which then takes the package to the Treasury Board for approval.

Bruce Owen

New recruitment and public safety is at risk in rural Manitoba because of the Harper government’s unexpected decision to roll back its previously negotiated pay hike to the RCMP, Mountie staff reps say.

And the impact of Ottawa’s unilateral decision will be felt in places like southeastern Manitoba, which is represented by one of the main players behind the unpopular cost-cutting move — federal Treasury Board president MP Vic Toews, an RCMP staff relations representative said Thursday.

“His word should be his bond,” said Staff-Sgt. Brian Roach. “When you campaign on law and order and then this is what you give us, I don’t think that reflects the community he represents.”

*Read more here.

Posted By Marc Zienkiewicz

An information campaign recently launched by the RCMP has Provencher MP and Federal Treasury Board president Vic Toews playing defense. 

Toews said this week that he stands behind the Treasury Board’s recent decision to roll back a planned 2009 wage increase for RCMP officers.

“This is going to save Canadian taxpayers $1.1 billion. That’s a significant amount of money, especially when other Canadians are either losing their jobs or facing wage rollbacks of their own. The fact is, the public sector has largely been immune from layoffs,” he said.

 That explanation isn’t good enough for RCMP officer Cpl. Kevin Elliot.

Elliot, who served as a constable in Pinawa for six years before recently moving to serve as corporal for Bloodvein First Nation, said the Treasury Board’s rollback is but a symptom of a larger problem facing the RCMP. 

“Obviously, it’s a disappointment,” he said. “I do believe we get a decent wage, but at the same time I think the government should stick to what was agreed upon last year.” 

Toews told the Leader this week that the wage rollback is fair in light of the economic downturn. The increase, announced last June as part of a new compensation package, would have constituted a pay raise of 3.5-per-cent in 2009 for members of the RCMP. In December, the Treasury Board knocked that figure down to 1.5 per cent, citing the slowing economy as the reason for the rollback. A two per cent increase scheduled for 2010 has also been rolled back to 1.5 per cent.

In the past few weeks, RCMP members have waged a full-scale public relations battle to try and have the wage increases pushed back up. A website, CallForBackup.ca, has been started to rally support for the cause. 

More than 10,000 people have signed the website’s online petition. Elliot - who now must live apart from his wife and children, who stayed behind in Pinawa - said widespread staff shortages are the wider problem, and the wage rollback will only make it harder for the RCMP to recruit new members. 

“Here in Bloodvein I should have three constables working under me, but I’m only able to have one,” he said. “I love my job and I love being here in Bloodvein, but the fact is we have to work 35 days before we get four days off. Not to mention the fact we’re always on-call. That doesn’t make it any easier to recruit new people. I love the RCMP, but we simply need more resources from the government to solve these problems.”

Cpl. Paul Joyal, spokesperson for the RCMP’s Staff Relations Representative Program in Manitoba and an organizer of the CallForBackup.ca campaign, said the concern over the wage rollback is about more than just a pay raise for police officers. 

“This is not about dollars,” Joyal said. “It’s about the value of public safety in this country. We’ve had an overwhelming response from the public and we hope the government listens.”

Toews said the government simply did not anticipate the full scale of the economic downturn until the middle of the recent federal election, after the pay raise had been promised in June. 

“We’re not singling out the RCMP in any way,” he said. “We’re treating the RCMP the same way we treat everyone else in the public service.”

 Joyal disagrees with that rationale. He echoed Elliot’s concerns over staff shortages, and said the RCMP face unique challenges not encountered by other areas of the public sector. 

“The fact is, our members live in places where no other public employees live, and in places like northern Manitoba are often required to stay in antiquated, substandard houses where most Canadians wouldn’t want to live. How do we convince young people to serve in we can’t offer competitive wages?” 

Joyal pointed out the RCMP is forbidden by law to unionize, and instead relies on a pay council committee established in 1996. He said when the compensation package was negotiated last year, it was intended to put the RCMP in the top three of the country’s more than 80 police forces in terms of pay. The wage rollback means that won’t happen, and now the RCMP ranks at around No. 34 in terms of pay. 

Joyal is hoping the CallForBackup.ca campaign, coupled with an application for a judicial review of the Treasury Board’s rollbackd ecision filed this week, will show the federal government that Canadians value public safety.

A Nanos Research poll conducted in early January showed only one in four Canadians support the government rollback.

January 29, 2009

Feds compromise security of Canadians

MP Martin blasts the government for tearing up the RCMP’s wage agreement 

OTTAWA - Today, MP Dr. Keith Martin blasted the government during Question Period for tearing up a wage agreement Prime Minister Harper announced; one that would simply have given the RCMP wage parity with other police forces across the country. 

While Dr. Martin asked whether the government would, “do the right thing and honour the wage agreement they signed?”  The government’s response was appalling, saying that the RCMP must make sacrifices and were not being discriminated against. 

This is simply untrue as it is the rank and file members who are paying the price. 

“Reneging on this agreement is an affront to the hard working RCMP officers who put their lives on the line every day to protect our citizens. It is a terrible blow to the Force and has long term, negative consequences that have been lost on this government,” said Dr. Martin. “This terrible decision will accelerate the loss of officers from the RCMP to provincial and municipal police forces and make it more difficult to attract new recruits.”

This will exacerbate the huge manpower deficit that already exists, which compromises the Force’s ability to fulfill its crucial public safety duties. In the interests of our RCMP, which is one of the finest police forces in the world, and for the security of our citizens, the government should honour the wage agreement and stop this rollback. This is simply the right thing to do. 

Dr. Keith Martin is the Member of Parliament for Esquimalt - Juan de Fuca 

-30-  

More Information: 

The office of Dr. Keith Martin, MP
(250) 474-6505
Martik1a@parl.gc.ca

(OTTAWA, ON - JANUARY 27, 2009) - RCMP Staff Relations Representatives declared their deep disappointment today after the Harper government missed an opportunity in Budget 2009 to honour their word by supporting RCMP members and reversing an ill-conceived wage rollback.

On December 11, 2008, Treasury Board announced its decision to rollback a wage agreement with the RCMP, and amended the new rates of pay for the second and third year of the most recent three-year compensation arrangement. At no time did Treasury Board provide advance notice of its decision, nor did it negotiate, consult, or even discuss the rollback with RCMP representatives who negotiated the agreement in good faith with the Government of Canada. These changes will have a detrimental effect on the RCMP’s ability to recruit new members and retain seasoned veterans.

“The Harper government missed an opportunity in today’s budget to do the right thing and live up to their word,” said S/Sgt. Brian Roach.  “Fixing this grave mistake is about securing the future of the RCMP by ensuring we can compete for the top new police talent and protect Canadians today and for years to come.”

A recent national poll indicated a majority of Canadians support a plan to ensure RCMP members receive the previously agreed wage increase or a further wage increase in 2009. Significantly, only one in four Canadians say they support the government’s decision to rollback the negotiated RCMP rates of pay. 

“From coast to coast, members of the RCMP are disillusioned following this breakdown of trust with the Harper government,” said Roach. “This is the ultimate insult for RCMP members who serve in more Canadians communities and postings overseas than any other government department.”

CallForBackup.ca was launched to help generate support and spark discussion about the wage rollback and what it means for Canadian public safety. Over 10,500 individuals have signed an online petition-signatures continue to be added daily-and more than 2,000 letters to MPs have been sent supporting RCMP members affected by the wage rollback. 

The Harper government committed to tackling crime by strengthening Canadian police forces like the RCMP. By taking the unprecedented step of rolling back a previously agreed wage increase for the RCMP, this government risks creating long-term challenges for the retention and recruitment of members, and in so doing, creates an increased risk for Canadian public safety. 

-30-

An information campaign recently launched by the RCMP has Provencher MP and Federal Treasury Board president Vic Toews playing defense.

Toews said this week that he stands behind the Treasury Board’s recent decision to roll back a planned 2009 wage increase for RCMP officers.

*Read the full story here.

*Read the full story here.

(OTTAWA, ON - JANUARY 19, 2009) - RCMP Staff Relations Representatives filed an application for a judicial review of Treasury Board’s decision to rollback a previously agreed-to wage increase for RCMP members.

On December 11, 2008, Treasury Board announced its decision to rollback a wage agreement with the RCMP, and amended the new rates of pay for the second and third year of the most recent three-year compensation arrangement. At no time did Treasury Board provide advance notice of its decision, nor did it negotiate, consult, or even discuss this decision with RCMP representatives who negotiated the agreement prior to announcing it. 

The application requests that the decision to amend the rates of pay for members for 2009 and 2010 be quashed. 

The application is the latest in a series of steps taken by the RCMP’s elected representatives to generate awareness among Canadians about the detrimental effects this decision poses for the future of the RCMP and Canadian public safety. A wage rollback will significantly affect the RCMP’s ability to recruit urgently needed new RCMP members and retain experienced members.

In a poll released last week, a majority of Canadians said they supported a plan to ensure RCMP members receive the previously agreed wage increase or a further wage increase in 2009. Significantly, only one in four Canadians say they support the government’s decision to rollback the negotiated RCMP rates of pay. 

CallForBackup.ca was launched to help generate support and spark discussion about the wage rollback and what it means for Canadian public safety. Over 10,500 individuals have signed an online petition-signatures continue to be added daily-and more than 2,000 letters to MPs have been sent supporting RCMP members affected by the wage rollback. 

The Harper government committed to tackling crime by strengthening Canadian police forces like the RCMP. By taking the unprecedented step of rolling back a previously agreed wage increase for the RCMP, this government risks creating long-term challenges for the retention and recruitment of members, and in so doing, creates an increased risk for Canadian public safety. 

- 30 - 

For more information visit www.CallForBackup.ca or contact: 

Brian Roach, National Executive                      
Staff Relations Representative Program
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
204-984-3928                   

Bob Meredith, National Executive
Staff Relations Representative Program
Royal Canadian Mounted Police     
780-915-6352