RCMP vacancy rate continues at 20% in B.C., but picture is improving, says top officer

The RCMP continue to have a vacancy rate greater than 20 per cent in British Columbia because of positions that are not filled and officers on leave.

But Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, the head of the RCMP in B.C., said the situation is improving.

Unfilled positions stand at nine per cent or more and another 13.5 per cent of officers are on leave, according to the latest figures that McDonald provided to Postmedia this past week. B.C. has 7,350 or more authorized positions for RCMP officers involved in federal, provincial and municipal policing.

The vacancy rate is similar to the situation the force was in at the end of November 2022, nearly 18 months ago.

McDonald said the biggest factor is recent changes that allow experienced and new recruits hired in B.C. to be posted back to this province and to have more say where they are posted after completing training.

That’s a big difference from when new officers had little idea or choice where they would go in Canada, McDonald said.

“That significantly changed the recruiting picture for us. When we made that change last May-June, our applications in the province went up 400 per cent literally within the first month,” he said.

Recent increases in wages have also helped, said McDonald.

The RCMP union, the National Police Federation, which represents about 20,000 officers, has won wage increases, including a recent arbitration decision that provides an eight per cent hike over two years. It has brought RCMP wages in line with other police forces in Canada.

McDonald said that for the first time in several years, there has been an increase in the number of officers in B.C., and the number of officers retiring dropped to about 250 last year from a high of 350 annually.

B.C. is also benefiting from more recruits flowing through the RCMP training centre in Saskatchewan after the numbers dropped significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

A program that allows experienced officers to join the force quickly without having to go through the six-month recruit training is also helping. Last year, 92 officers were hired in B.C. through that program, McDonald said.

The RCMP is getting a boost from $230 million announced by the B.C. government in late 2022 to hire an additional 256 RCMP officers over three years to carry out provincial duties including patrolling highways, serving in smaller and remote communities, and investigating major crimes.

B.C. Public Safety Ministry officials said that progress is being made with 59 officers and 30 public service employees hired as of March 2024 to boost RCMP staffing under that funding boost.

Still, with 9.0 to 9.5 per cent of permanent positions not filled, about 660 to 700 positions remain vacant. Another nearly 1,000 officers are on leave, including for maternity and paternity leave, short- and longterm sick leave due to illness and injuries, suspensions and leave without pay.

The RCMP provides three levels of policing in B.C. and has the largest number of Mounties of any province. Staffing shortages are an issue for RCMP across the country, as well as for other police forces.

The RCMP has federal force members in B.C. that provide services in areas such as organized crime and national security, as well as providing officers for the provincial force and to more than 140 municipalities, the majority of Vancouver Island and Sidney, North Saanich, Sooke and the West Shore in the capital region

McDonald said there are more unfilled positions in federal policing services than at the provincial and municipal level, although he did not have a breakdown of those numbers.

Despite the vacancies, there are no challenges the RCMP force has not been able to meet, said McDonald.

“I’m very confident we have never fallen below the standard of the province has set for adequate and effective policing,” he said.

There have been some challenges in supplying officers in rural and remote areas, with housing availability sometimes a problem. Those gaps can be filled with officers from the RCMP’s provincial support team who can go into communities for short periods of time, said McDonald.

Policing has been in the spotlight in B.C. recently for several reasons, including because of questions about the long-term future of RCMP contract policing for provinces and municipalities and the bitter dispute over the move to a municipal force in Surrey to replace the RCMP.

McDonald said Surrey’s transition to the municipal force, where 587 remaining RCMP officers are to be replaced, does not give the force the ability to provide a quick fix to B.C. vacancies because the transition is moving slowly.

“It’s not like next week we are going to have 587 people to put throughout the province,” he said.

Of those RCMP officers in Surrey that have moved already, about 90 per cent chose to stay in B.C., McDonald said.