The Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) met with Public Safety Canada this week over concerns about RCMP retro pay, and how it could impact local government budgets.
Quesnel City Councillor Laurey-Anne Roodenburg is the President of the UBCM.
“We had a series of calls with the federal government. We had three different sets of meetings, one was for large communities, one was for communities over 10,000 and then others were under 5,000 because under 5,000 is a different beast. They don’t pay directly, they get charged a police tax by the province.”
Roodenburg says they hoped to accomplish three things.
“We wanted to make sure that they were provided clarity with what was going on in regards to the retroactive pay, we wanted to make sure they understood that there’s ongoing advocacy that UBCM and others across Canada are undertaking in regards to the retroactive pay, and basically we want them to give us some kind of an answer, you know take this back to the Minister and give us an answer of where this stands, because everybody is in limbo right now.”
In the end, she says they reiterated their call for Ottawa to foot the entire bill.
Roodenburg says they were not given a timeline on when they might get a response to their request.
In August of 2021, RCMP members ratified a six-year deal which included a wage increase of almost 24 percent, that was retroactive to 2017.
The UBCM is also working with the Federation of Canada Municipalities on this file.
Numerous Councils, including Quesnel and Williams Lake, have sent in letters of support.