News: Media backgrounder: Municipal impacts of RCMP retroactive pay

August 16, 2022

In August 2021, a collective bargaining agreement was announced between the federal government and National Police Federation, representing nearly 20,000 RCMP officers across Canada. The agreement includes a significant increase in pay for RCMP officers and retroactive pay going back to 2017. The new agreement has substantial financial impact on municipalities that use contract RCMP police services, and affects communities in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Municipalities are paying a growing share of policing costs, but they have limited financial tools to absorb these unplanned, unbudgeted costs and were not adequately consulted.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is calling on the federal government to (1) absorb all retroactive costs associated with implementation and 2) commit to ensuring municipalities are properly consulted on measures that would impact local fiscal sustainability and ability to maintain effective levels of police services.

Background

The new RCMP collective agreement covers a period of six years beginning on April 1, 2017 and includes an economic increase to salaries of 1.75 per cent each year. It also includes market adjustments, distributed over the course of the six-year contract, valued at 11.53 per cent, to address wage differences between RCMP members and reservists and other police services across Canada. Where municipalities were advised to prepare, estimates of 2.5% per year increases turned out to be far below the final agreement’s 23.7% increase over six years, with retroactive pay going back to 2017.

Several municipalities have done their own cost estimates and shared them publicly, as outlined below.

Municipality	Province	Estimated amounts and impacts
Alberta Municipalities (provincial association)	Alberta	Estimates Alberta municipalities will pay a cumulative $80 million in retroactive pay.
City of Airdrie	Alberta	$3.5 to $4-million impact on budget, equivalent to a 5% increase for their population of 68,000.
Town of Banff	Alberta	Had accrued money in anticipation of the pay raise based on a 2.5% increase, but the increase is 4.5% so has a net exposure of about $200,000. Population: 7,847.
City of Brooks	Alberta	$700,000 in one-time back pay equivalent of a tax increase of 5.5%.
Town of Canmore	Alberta	Retroactive pay could be $1 million, RCMP budget was $2.7 million in 2021 and they anticipate a jump to about $3.3 million – an increase of about $615,000 for 2022.
Town of Cochrane	Alberta	Estimate retroactive pay will amount to between $1 million and $1.3 million.
Town of Hinton	Alberta	One-time cost of approximately $750,000 for retroactive pay, which translates to a 5.8% estimated tax increase. Population: 9,882.
Town of Morinville	Alberta	Additional $200,000 to $250,000 in retroactive pay. Population: 9,848.
Northern Sunrise County (NSC)	Alberta	In 2021, the county’s police funding model invoice was $150,000, NSC’s expected cost for 2022 is $174,000. County’s cost may increase to $230,000 and then $340,000 on the three-year horizon. Population: 1,891.
Town of Okotoks	Alberta	Between $1 million and $1.5 million in retroactive pay costs, which could lead to a tax hike for residents between 3% and 5%.
Town of Peace River	Alberta	$550,000 extra in comparison to 2021, including back pay and salary increase.
City of Red Deer	Alberta	$5.37 million in one-time costs, City would have to raise an additional $690,000 going forward in annual property taxes.
Town of Rimbey	Alberta	Total policing budget expected to increase to $85,000 to $100,000 in 2022 year, and by 2025, expected $200,000 for policing costs. Population: 2,567.
City of St. Albert	Alberta	$3 million in retroactive pay.
Town of Stony Plain	Alberta	$1.2 million for 2022 (in extra costs).
Town of Strathmore	Alberta	Over $700,000 for retroactive back pay (for context, adding $129,000 extra to budget equates to about a 1% property tax increase).
City of Burnaby	British Columbia	$4 million extra for its police force, which is equivalent to a 1.39% tax hike.
City of Kamloops	British Columbia	Policing will cost taxpayers just over $30 million in 2022, 23% increase in operating costs.
City of Prince George	British Columbia	$6.5 million, city has put away $4 million, remaining $2.5 million translates into about 2% to the tax roll.
City of Richmond	British Columbia	Between $9 million and $11 million in retroactive pay as well as more than $6 million more in annual operating costs. Operating increase could bring taxes up between 2.5% and 3.5%.
City of Vernon	British Columbia	One-time costs of retroactive pay to be approximately $3.4 million. Implementing the collective agreement will equate to a 2022 municipal tax rate increase of 2.4%.
City of Portage la Prairie	Manitoba	$800,000 in back pay, plus an additional $800,000 annually in increased protective services costs which represents on average an increase of $137 per tax property roll in 2022.
City of Selkirk	Manitoba	Back pay will take up 7.8% of the city’s tax revenue. Tax increase of $101 per average household in 2022. Population: 10,278.
City of Moncton	New Brunswick	Estimating $5.7 million to cover retroactive costs and increase of $1,850,000 annually.
Town of Cornwall	Prince Edward Island	Estimating between $123,000 and $130,000 in retroactive payments. Population: 5,346
Town of Stratford	Prince Edward Island	Estimating $156,000 to cover retroactive pay. Population: 9,706
Town of La Ronge	Saskatchewan	16% increase to police budget. Population: 2,688.
Town of Lumsden	Saskatchewan	Police budget increase of about $28,000. Population: 1,824.
City of Meadow Lake	Saskatchewan	Police budget increase of about $500,000. Population: 5,344.
City of Melfort	Saskatchewan	3% tax increase to cover the retroactive pay. Population: 5,992.
City of North Battleford	Saskatchewan	One-time retroactive wage payment that is estimated to cost $1.67 million in 2022.
City of Swift Current	Saskatchewan	Estimating at least $1 million in retroactive pay.
City of Warman	Saskatchewan	Increase of more than 21.5 % policing budget.
City of Yorkton	Saskatchewan	$1.4 million increase to its policing budget.