New Brunswick’s municipalities look a little bit different than a year ago and that is impacting front-line police services for the ones who have municipal forces.
Many municipalities are taking in portions of local service districts as part of the largest reforms to municipal government in decades — but with that come challenges for the already existing ones.
“The job’s not getting any easier, any safer, or any less complicated with the annexation, (and it) will require additional officers,” said Fredericton Police Force Chief Martin Gaudet at a public safety committee on Nov. 10.
Gaudet, who was officially named to the top job for the force nine weeks ago, has asked the council to earmark $1.3 million for additional officers and two civilian positions.
In his presentation, he outlined the force would want to hire four new officers in order to compensate for the additional area. That additional area will see 4,300 resident added to the force’s mandate in a largely rural jurisdiction.
“We need to prepare for that,” he said in his presentation. “One in integrated community services, two in patrols and one in major crime.”
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The request plan also includes contracting $600,000 for a community safety unit, which would utilize unarmed private security to make the police presence known in areas that have been identified by the public, council and the business community.
The additional six positions for the new jurisdiction will cost $700,000.
Additional municipalities facing challenges
Fredericton, though, isn’t the only municipality that will face challenges as the reforms take shape.
Dan Murphy is the executive director with the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick and has been part of helping the new entities through the process.
“2024 is likely when the changes will take place but certainly I know there is a number of municipal forces that are going to be taking on significantly more territory,” he said in an interview on Monday.
“If you look at the City of Fredericton or the Town of Woodstock, it’s about 50 per cent large in terms of population.”
Policing is something Murphy said is frequently discussed amongst municipal entities, especially the recruitment and retention issues faced by both the RCMP and other police bodies.
“Time is needed for those forces to get officers trained and get out onto patrol,” he said.
He said some areas surrounding municipalities have asked for the force to extend the service and replace the RCMP, so Murphy said from that aspect it will be good.
Grand Falls will pay for 2 police forces
In Grand Falls, Mayor Marcel Deschenes said the municipality was on board with moving the Grand Falls Police Force into its new area, taking in an additional 5,000 residents or almost double the current population. However, the government has delayed that.
The new municipal entity will have to pay for two forces, RCMP and GRPF, until the contract for the RCMP expires at the end of 2023.
“They’ll just continue doing it and the same with our own police force, (who) will simply be doing the area we’ve been accustomed to doing for the last so many years,” he said in an interview by phone Monday.
“It would be nice if there was only one force doing the full territory but that’s beyond us. Government decided on this and that’s what we need to go with.”
It’ll cost the municipality an additional $1.2 million, which Deschenes hopes will be refunded by government.
He said the council’s hands are tied with the RCMP contract.
“It’s unfortunate but that’s what it is,” he said.
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