Putting More Boots on the Ground
Prince George, B.C.- Staffing issues continue to plague the Prince George Detachment of the RCMP.
On paper, the P.G. Detachment is approved to have 135 officers says Superintendent Warren Brown, but because of attrition, transfers or officers being on maternity , paternity or other medical leaves, the detachment has no where near that number “Right now we are at an all time low for boots on the road ” says Supt. Brown. There were just 112 officers available for duty last month.
“We do have a staffing plan to get people here” says Supt. Brown “But because of house sales in other communities going slow, (because of ) a downturn in the economy, we are just having a difficult time in attracting people here.”
Supt. Brown says the local detachment is “challenged” to meet the base requirement for the number of officers that are supposed to be on any one shift “There have been very few days go by where we are not calling in additional resources so those who are members who are on days off, we have frozen leave this summer as well, however because of our shortages we have had to freeze that when there are planned events so it’s a challenge daily, but we are meeting our very minimum requirements right now.”
When the local RCMP detachment pressed the City to increase its staffing numbers, there were hopes expressed that increased numbers would reduce the overtime being paid that’s not likely to happen, although that overtime bill should be offset somewhat by the decreased wages the detachment is paying. “There’s a lot of things we can’t predict” says Supt. Brown “We have some people off on maternity leave, and the male officers are entitled to be off on paternity leave. We have some off on medical leave right now, and there are some who are moving because of promotions. Those are the peaks and valleys of where we are now.”
Supt. Brown remains optimistic “Hopefully by the fall we will be back up to where we need to be.”
Comments
Perhaps we should have funnelled some of the $60 million spent on the new station to where it was actually needed.
I for one support the new RCMP detachment. It’s a nice looking building. All too often business & government buildings in PG look dull and boring.
Look at our population numbers, they keep dropping. I fully support PG trying to improve it’s image and make it a nice place to live. I’m not saying we need dramatic growth, but some steady positive growth numbers makes for a healthy City.
As for the staffing issues at the RCMP, I wish them luck as Cops are people too and want to have a work/life balance just like the rest of us.
Maybe we should raise are property taxes to attract people to Prince George. My dad has a house worry worth 1.2 million in Surrey and his property is lower than mine. My house us worth $500, 000
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me the new Police Station is an appalling looking building. It probably has the most expensive wasted space of any building in Prince George. We should have stuck to the basics for this police station and saved ourselves millions of dollars that could have been better spent somewhere else.
Our population numbers keep dropping because we have a large number of seniors, plus a lot of people leave Prince George when they retire. Furthermore there are not any new high paying jobs in Prince George, and it is pretty hard to attract anyone with $12.00 per hour jobs. How do we expect anyone to buy a house, or start a family on a $12.00 per hour job.
We need to find new ways of doing things, if we hope keep this city going. We cannot continue to increase taxes to cover increases in City staff, especially when there is no increase in population, or production.
It time the City looked at reductions in spending. Money saved from reductions in some areas could go toward protective services, if that is where the number one need is.
Beauty is most certainly in the eyes of the beholder.
When I think of a good looking RCMP station I think of the north detachment on 5th near Ospika. It is a simple, clean, modern building with lots of windows for staff plus an atrium.
Instead of building that monstrosity with the false wooden front gymnastics as well as the glass enclosed “living” walls, with no plants in sight yet, on the north and south sides, would have saved $2 to $3 million easily with which they could have built the secure, underground garage which they removed. That would have freed up other properties in the area to put on the market.
There are nice looking buildings. Then there are ostentatious looking buildings. The RCMP building belongs under the last category.
Just to remind everyone, the word “ostentatious” is defined as “vulgar or pretentious display; designed to impress or attract notice”. Synonyms include showy, flamboyant, gaudy, brash, loud, extravagant, overelaborate, over the top. For those reasons, the building is not going to win any architectural awards. We have several in this city which have won such awards.
That building is not what architectural aesthetics is about.
I notice that they have planted some Lombardy Poplar trees in the front, so the building will shortly be hidden by those. I do not know who the not-so smart landscape architect was that made that selection.
And then there is that weed-gathering mess on the ground intended to protect the building from someone trying to ram it with a hummer. Simple concrete bollards would have done the trick. One just has to check out some of the US embassy buildings around the world to figure out how it is done.
Maybe instead of paying them full wages when on medical leave, they would have money to hire more members.. As it is, they pay full wages for leaves, they do not go on EI or anything like that
Maternity leaves? Short term family illness leaves? Long term illness leaves? A couple of days bereavement leaves?
Those types of leaves are normal in a unionized shop for both union and excluded staff.
Yess butthey are all not paid FULL wages. Ever seen a RCMP at EI ?? applying for Mat leave or short term leave?? Long term leave is paid by a Insurance company. RCMP pays their full wages when they go on leave. Thats why the organization has no extra funds to hire more, but instead keeping asking the City for a increase to hire more members
Almost 20% not able to work.. That’s crazy..
It is not quite that high since I understand that they have not got the full 135 officers on payroll. If they did, it would be closer to 17% not available to work. It looks like that number is closer to 10%.
The civilian staff is also not at full complement I believe. There is an ad for part time and on-call administrative support, $25.66/hr + 12% in lieu of benefits.
For a 20 hour per week part time job that works out to approximately $30,000/year.
wowjobs.ca/JobDetails.aspx?k=23851077
The Prince George RCMP Detachment is seeking a number of customer-oriented and self-motivated individuals to provide varied support to several operational areas at the detachment on a scheduled and on-call basis.
Overtime pay is more cost effective due to savings in pensions and benefits.
So when you are short boots on the ground borrow them from Fort McMurray. Duh!
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