The Division’s attention has been drawn to a recent (April 10, 2019) article that examines the increasing inability of the RCMP to staff it’s white collar crime positions due to redeployment of officers to counter-terrorism and general detachment duties. While not in the article it should be noted that the Force is also facing basic staffing problems due to its inability to attract sufficient recruits to fulfill its contract responsibilities with the various provinces and substantial defections to other better paying and better equipped police services. The Force, in 2009 was third on the pay scale after Vancouver and Toronto. By 2012 it had fallen to 53rd., after the Moose Jaw municipal police who were 52nd.
The article argues that the Force is stretched too thin and should begin focusing on federal policing and developing a cadre of “investigative specialists” with expertise appropriate to deal with the exponential growth in white collar crime. Theory being that training at Depot Division does not equip the average member to work in money laundering and its various off-shoots.
Early in the article, an interim report by retired Deputy Commissioner Peter German finds that there are “no federal (RCMP) resources in British Columbia dedicated to criminal money-laundering investigations”. On the other hand the Force has expressed the intent to stay in contract policing along with its federal policing responsibilities and if so some changes have to be made – primarily in the funds being allotted to the Force which are clearly inadequate to pay salaries that are appropriate for our national police force and to supply equipment that reflects the best that is available.
The RCMPVA, in a letter to Minister of Public Safety, Ralph Goodale, expressed its concern over the latest paltry pay increase for members of the Force and it is evident that that parsimony is having the results foreseen by the RCMPVA. As an Association we have not gone far beyond letters to the Minister regarding salaries but clearly it is time that we, along with Canadians begin to make more noise regarding salaries, equipment and working conditions to support the serving members.
The article may be read at Rethinking the Mountie mandate: RCMP needs to quit municipal, provincial policing, critics say in wake of new report