With Mounties due for a pay bump, cash-strapped municipalities seek reprieve from Ottawa

Mounties are due to receive a chunk of retroactive pay after negotiating their first-ever collective agreement. Some municipalities say the looming salary bump will stress their finances — and they want Ottawa to step up.

This summer, the federal government and the union representing RCMP members ratified an agreement to deliver a sizeable pay increase to nearly 20,000 members.

Constables — who account for more than half of all RCMP officers — will see their maximum salary jump from $86,110 as of April 2016 to $106,576 next year.

The deal also lays out retroactive pay increases going back to 2017. The RCMP last updated its wage scale in 2016. 

According to the agreement, the rates of pay will change within 90 days of Aug. 6, when the collective agreement was signed. It's then up to the RCMP to make its "best effort" to implement the retroactive payable amounts within 270 days of signing.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) says communities that pay the RCMP for policing services are growing alarmed over the agreement's cost.

"It's widespread coast to coast to coast and our municipalities are actually very concerned, very, very concerned," said FCM president Joanne Vanderheyden, also the mayor of the municipality of Strathroy-Caradoc in Ontario.

"This issue is absolutely urgent given the potential impacts on municipal finances."

The RCMP is a federal agency but it provides policing services, under contract, to eight provinces, all three territories, about 150 municipalities and more than 600 Indigenous communities.

The cost of the RCMP's services — including salaries and equipment — is split between the federal government and other levels of government. How much a municipality is on the hook for depends on its size.

Municipalities with populations of less than 15,000 pay 70 per cent of the costs, while the federal government pays 30 per cent. Municipalities with more than 15,000 residents pay 90 per cent.

Vanderheyden said that while negotiations on the collective agreement were happening behind closed doors, municipalities were advised by the federal government to set money aside to cover the anticipated pay hike.

"Well, the percentage was way too low," she said, adding the retroactive pay also came as a surprise to most mayors.

"We are absolutely not against collective bargaining. That's not it. It's when you're not at the table and the direct impact comes to you."