A group of RCMP members on the Sunshine Coast is among the first to join a nationwide protest against the government’s slow response to calls for better pay and a new contract.
The disgruntled Mounties have been covering the bright yellow stripe on their trousers with duct tape, or wearing plain blue cargo pants.
Sgt. Chris Backus, one of the Sunshine Coast RCMP members involved in the protest, said although a Supreme Court of Canada ruling has given Mounties the right to form a union, the process of getting a union certified is dragging on too slowly and members want the salary issue addressed now.
RCMP members have been without a contract since January 2015.
Just as frustrated members at the Sunshine Coast detachment, North Vancouver and some others across the country were getting ready to start their stripe-stripping protest, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale announced retroactive pay increases of 1.25 per cent effective Jan. 1, 2015, a further 1.25 per cent effective Jan. 1, 2016, and a “market adjustment” of 2.3 per cent effective April 1, 2016.
“It was a last-minute olive branch and we see right through it,” said Backus “It’s insulting. Go back into the room, Mr. Goodale, and keep working something out.”
The RCMP pay scale is public, and as of Jan. 1, 2014 it ran from $50,674 per year for a rookie constable to $107,146 per year for a staff sergeant major – the highest rank below inspector.
“Right now you have a constable for the Vancouver city police making more than a staff sergeant for the RCMP,” said Backus. “You have the chief of police of Port Moody, who controls a similar amount of policing resources as our staff sergeant on the Sunshine Coast does, and he is making $60,000 more a year.”
Backus told Coast Reporter the difference in pay between RCMP members and their counterparts in other police forces has the potential to harm the future effectiveness of the Mounties.
“Our recruitment is getting hindered. Of the good candidates that are applying in the Canadian police universe, why would they go to RCMP when you can go to Vancouver city police and make $30,000 more a year as an entry-level constable,” he said. “We’re under-resourced – we aren’t able to fill these positions.
“The other thing is we’re losing members to the municipal police forces. We’re training these members – and they’re good members – and they’re saying ‘see ya later, I’m outa here, I’m going to work for another [police force],” so we’re having trouble retaining gifted and skilled police officers.”
Backus said he, and the other members changing their stripes as part of the protest, are prepared to keep doing it “as long as it takes.”
“We’re just hoping that we can get some public attention, and most importantly get some government attention here from our MPs and the federal government. You guys gotta wake up, what you’re doing for us is not enough. This is a first step that we’re considering is the best, most professional [and] ethical way to make a statement, but it’s not the last one. We’ll take it day by day and see where this goes,” said Backus, adding that the last thing RCMP members want to do is withdraw services.
In the past, he said, members were either reluctant to speak publicly or prevented from doing it through fear of disciplinary action, but those days are over.
“What the membership is saying is, ‘We’re done being quiet, we’re no longer fearful of what the RCMP will do to us if we speak out.’ We need a voice.”
