Tantramar council is opting to spend another $170,000 a year to hire a 14th RCMP officer to help patrol the Tantramar municipality. But the move may not result in an additional working officer for quite some time, due to issues filling RCMP vacancies.
On Tuesday night, after Councillor Allison Butcher moved a staff recommendation to increase the Tantramar RCMP complement to 13 officers, Councillor Matt Estabrooks made a second motion that asked for that number to go up to 14, to bring Tantramar’s ‘cop to pop’ ratio above 1.5. The staff and RCMP recommendation would see the ratio sit slightly above 1.4.
“Personally, I’ve heard a lot about policing in the last bit in Tantramar, the last couple of years I’ve been on council. And I’m always very financially responsive. If there’s something that I’d like to spend money or extra money on, it’s policing,” said Estabrooks, after a presentation from RCMP representatives. “After doing a little bit of research on my own, certainly not as in depth as yours, I have a comfort level around the 1.5 [cop to pop] number.”
There are currently ten officers allotted to the former town of Sackville under its Municipal Police Services Agreement (MPSA), and the rest of the municipality is covered under a complement from the Provincial Police Services Agreement (PPSA). Since amalgamation in January 2022, the geographic size of the new municipality is nearly ten times the size of the former town, and the population increased by nearly 3000 people. Those changes, along with similar ones in the rest of the province, prompted the RCMP to analyze and assess their member allocations.
According to Stacy Barrett, the manager of business intelligence for J division (ie. RCMP New Brunswick), the recommendation for 13 officers was based on the increases in population and geographic area, as well as current workload. Barrett was one of four RCMP representatives who joined Tuesday’s meeting via teleconference.
Slide from RCMP presentation to Tantramar Council, November 14, 2023
Marc Maillet, the inspector in charge of operations for the Southeast District, told councillors that there were currently 23 officers working out of the Sackville detachment, including MPSA and PPSA members. He also confirmed that just 8.5 of Sackville’s ten positions were currently filled.
Considering the existing vacancies in the detachment, councillor Michael Tower asked the district commander for the Southeast District, Dan Austin, about the potential for filling four new spots in the detachment.
“To be right up front with council, we are still having challenges in getting our cadets into [RCMP Academy, Depot Division] in Regina,” responded Austin. “The situation is improving… Every day, it’s getting a little easier. But we’re not quite where we were before the pandemic with the numbers going through.”
Austin told council that regardless, the force would certainly try. “If council supported the initiative, we would do our utmost to make sure those were staffed in a timely manner, given the current situation with the intake of cadets or availability of current members within the RCMP to fill those positions,” said Austin.
Austin also told council that while the contracts determine how many officers are in the detachment, the officers don’t take calls according to MPSA or PPSA allotments, but rather share the workload as needed. According to treasurer Michael Beal the RCMP have also said they will not reduce the number of PPSA officers when they increase the Tantramar complement. Rather, the new officers added would represent truly new positions for the region.
Beal urged council to accept the RCMP and staff recommendation for a 13 officer complement for Tantramar, noting that the increase of another position would mean possibly overspending on the 2024 budget. “If 14 was the number, that could be resulting in potentially up to another $170,000 in expenses for Tantramar,” said Beal, noting that would translate to about 1.5 cents on the tax rate. “My recommendation would be that we move to 13, we give the RCMP time to fill those 13. If they have filled those 13, and they find they cannot undertake the services that they need to provide to Tantramar, we could look at that again in a future budget year.”
Councillor Matt Estabrooks, along with most of council, ultimately disagreed with that strategy, opting to budget now for a 14 member complement. Most councillors didn’t speak to their position on Estabrooks’ motion, though some clearly struggled with the decision.
“I’m torn,” said Councillor Josh Goguen, “because you see the comments. And you see everyone is having pressures on policing right now, all across the country.” Goguen said he was concerned that the extra position might not get filled, and also that the increase in operating costs could take money away from other priorities. “If we’re cutting recreational service or a street that badly needs to be paved,” said Goguen, “you almost need to balance it.”
In the end, Goguen and almost all of his fellow councillors voted to add the extra police officer to the contract for 2024, with councillor Allison Butcher, the original mover of the staff recommendation, the lone nay vote.