The Board of Police Commissioners and Moose Jaw Police Association have signed a new three-year collective bargaining agreement that will provide cops almost seven-per-cent more in pay during the contract’s term.
Commissioner Dawn Luhning, board chair, Staff Sgt. Taylor Elder, president of the association, and Const. Kyle Cunningham, association secretary, signed the document during a ceremony at police headquarters on Dec. 20.
As part of the agreement — from January 2021 to December 2023 — police received 1.8 per cent in 2021, 1.95 per cent in 2022 and 2.9 per cent in 2023 for a total of 6.65 per cent.
The board and the association hammered out the agreement over a couple of meetings during the past year and reached an agreeable resolution that didn’t require an arbitrator.
“We’re very happy that we were able to reach an agreement,” Chief Rick Bourassa said.
Luhning agreed, saying it was good to reach a positive conclusion, while she thought the process went smoothly and was not acrimonious or confrontational. She appreciated that a mediator was unnecessary because no one truly wins through arbitration, not even the winning side.
“It adds a lot of costs (and) it adds additional time,” she said. “If it went to arbitration, it could be a year from now before we see a signed agreement. … I feel like if it goes to arbitration, there’s a real bad relationship between the association and the board.”
She added, “This isn’t the case right here.”
The police union has been through arbitration before and no one wins through that process, echoed Elder. He thought it was refreshing to agree to a new CBA without that measure, while he thought both sides worked well together.
“And now we can move forward and focus on public safety, which is our main goal anyways,” he said, adding the union and its members are satisfied with the new CBA.
The Moose Jaw union usually bases its funding request on what officers in Regina make, so it waits to see how The Queen City’s CBA talks play out before it puts forward its offer, Elder continued. Moose Jaw cops still make less than Regina cops — the gap is about two per cent — so the union is attempting to close that.
Meanwhile, there isn’t anything in the new agreement that is an “extreme change” from the past, while he thought it was a fair negotiation where both sides gave up something to reach a deal.
It’s important that the Moose Jaw Police Service remain competitive salary-wise with other agencies and provide an adequate compensation package, said Bourassa. It’s important to ensure the organization is on a level playing field with other police services.
Deputy Chief Rick Johns explained that the police board — taking direction from police administration — wanted non-monetary changes to the CBA, to which the union agreed. This included clarifying wording and eliminating guaranteed pay for up to five statutory holidays regardless of whether cops work them.
Deleting that clause and applying it to wages translated into 1.5 per cent, which was part of the 2.9 per cent pay raise for 2023.
“We felt that when people are working statutory holidays, it would create a situation where people would be working stats, and we’d have a whole bunch of police officers here that didn’t necessarily need to be there on those stats,” Johns added. “It allows us to more efficiently manage people’s time.”
Elder added that that change allows officers to spend more time with their families on Thanksgiving or Christmas, while the police service can still adequately staff those days.
