Tantramar council will soon decide on the future of the municipal and provincial policing service agreements–the MPSA and PPSA–that govern how the RCMP police the region. Currently, the RCMP are under an MPSA with the former town of Sackville, and a PPSA with the former village of Dorchester and local service districts.
“The federal government has advised us that we cannot have two [contracts],” treasurer Michael Beal told council on Monday. “So we do need to have one contract, either an MPSA or PPSA.”
Beal shared some analysis done by the RCMP ultimately recommending that the town move to an MPSA covering the new area, with an increase in the number of officers in the contract.
Currently the Sackville MPSA calls for ten officers to patrol the former town of Sackville, which had a population of about 6,100 as of the last census in 2021. After amalgamation, Tantramar’s new population was just over 9,000. The physical area of the municipality expanded to a much greater degree, going from about 74 square kilometres to 704 square kilometres.
Councillor Allison Butcher wondered about why the RCMP recommended only increasing their complement by three officers. “A 50% increase in our population, almost 10 times the land mass, yet they think only three more officers will be enough?” wondered Butcher.
Councillor Matt Estabrooks also raised the issue of the ‘cop to pop’ ratio, which would go from 1.64 officers per 1000 people in the Sackville contract, down to 1.44 officers for 1000 people in the new MPSA. Beal told council the recommended ‘cop to pop’ range was 1.2 to 1.5.
Estabrooks asked Beal if council would have the opportunity to increase the complement in the contract.
“Ultimately it is our choice on what we wish to be policed at within our municipality,” said Beal. “We could increase that to 20, if we so choose. But this was an analysis done fully by the RCMP, and what they feel is the need to police Tantramar’s new municipal boundaries.”
In an email response to CHMA, New Brunswick RCMP spokesperson Hans Ouellette says the recommendation is based on, “our operational data, input from local officers and LGR [local governance reform] implications.”
Beal pointed out that the increase in the allotted number of officers in the contract would not mean an immediate increase in the actual number of officers working in Tantramar, because the detachment is already understaffed. “We are operating between seven and eight [officers] right now,” said Beal. “So to go to 14 would be even more challenging for the RCMP.”
Mayor Andrew Black noted that filling new positions under a new MPSA contract might be a tall order, “considering that they’re talking about 80 new PPSA [positions] over the next two years in the province.”
But despite the potential for delay in filling the positions, Black seemed to support the idea of an MPSA with an increased number of officers. “An MPSA agreement might be better for us around police presence within the outlying areas of the municipality,” said Black, since with PPSA, “you never really know where those officers are going to be.”
Beal told council that according to the RCMP, the change from PPSA to MPSA in Dorchester, rural Sackville and Point de Bute would not affect the number of PPSA officers operating out of the Sackville detachment. So the region as a whole would see a net gain of officers, once all positions were filled. The new system would, however, appear to cost less.
Any changes to the service agreements would happen in line with the RCMP’s fiscal year, which begins on April 1. Beal did the math and found that a switch to a full Tantramar MPSA on April 1 would save the municipality about $83,000 in 2024, with a total cost of about $2.2 million dollars. (The town also has some other policing costs, such a building services for the RCMP detachment at Sackville town Hall.)
Beal told council the RCMP have requested a decision on the future service agreements very soon, as early at November 10. Council is slated to meet to discuss and vote on their budget, and the policing issue, at their next regular meeting on November 14. After a series of police operations questions from council, Beal said he would ask the RCMP if they could come present their proposal and answer questions directly.
