THUNDER BAY -- Nishnawbe Aski Police Service officers have ratified a labour agreement that will increase their wages, improve their workplace safety and commit to police infrastructure funding in remote First Nations.
The contract that was ratified by a majority of NAPS officers on Friday grants a 10.3 per cent salary increase over four years, retroactive to 2014. When accounting for an additional 1.5 per cent increase offered to all First Nations police officers for 2014, the total wage increase is 11.8 per cent. That's the full value recommended by a federal arbitrator in 2014.
"The guys are happy and the communities are happy," said Jason Storkson, the president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada's local 401, the union representing NAPS officers.
"They didn't want to lose us as a police service and no one wanted to stop working so it's a pretty celebratory mood."
NAPS is also looking to hire between 30 and 40 uniformed staff by 2018 as the contract promises to eliminate the practice of officers working alone. The plan is to increase officer complement to all communities in which only two total officers are working by January.
Commitments have been made to purchase new vehicles and upgrade radio phones to satellite cell phones, which will be connected to the Ontario Provincial Police dispatch.
Language in the contract also looks forward to upgrading police stations but no formal commitments to bricks and mortar are made.
"Things can't happen instantly," Storkson said. "You have to ramp it up."
Storkson said a significant gap remains between NAPS officer pay and that of the OPP. He added negotiations for the next collective bargaining agreement will begin shortly thanks to this short-term contract and a final Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that confirmed NAPS falls under provincial responsibility.
"We also got binding arbitration in our contract so this wouldn't happen again," he said.
"With the short-term contract, we can fight again. At this time next year, we can start arbitration again to address the rest of the gap."
Storkson said the backdrop for improvements to the service is the circling speculation that Ontario will bring First Nations policing organizations under the Police Services Act. NAPS and Nishnawbe Aski Nation have lobbied the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services to take that step as it undergoes the act's first overhaul in 25 years. Minister Yasir Naqvi has also called the status quo in First Nations policing "unacceptable."
