Prince George RCMP are hoping that by putting in for more officers on paper, they'll be able to staff the local detachment to its current budgeted level.
The city has a contract with the provincial government to provide 128 RCMP members to the local detachment but those numbers haven't been met. Since 2009, city council has approved budgets that would fund 121 RCMP members, but staff levels and vacancies have meant that the detachment traditionally runs a surplus every year.
"Even after budgeting at 121, we've had trouble hitting that number," recreation and cultural services director Rob Whitwham told city council's finance and audit committee Monday afternoon.
Over the past three years, the P.G. detachment has averaged about 12 per cent less members on the street than are on the roster due to vacancies for maternity or paternity leave or medical reasons.
To combat this, the RCMP are requesting the city increase their contract by 12 per cent to have 135 spots to fill on the books instead of 128.
Recent staffing policy changes within the policing organization mean the local RCMP can no longer put two people to a position to handle a vacancy, explained Staff Sgt. Perry Smith.
"They need what are called hard vacancies. If we don't have a hard vacancy available they won't staff it," he said. "So now we run into this where we have this shortfall because we don't have hard vacancies available and we still have people on mat leave and pat leave."
City council will consider the change at a future meeting.
Changing the contracted number of members won't affect the budget, said the acting officer in charge Insp. Brad Anderson.
"We are asking for these hard vacancies so we can put boots on the ground, basically," Anderson said. "Our new person coming in, Supt. [Warren] Brown, will be no different than the other two superintendents that have been here. He has to budget to that 121 to get 121 people working long term in Prince George. We're not going to go up to 135. This basically - it's a numbers game."
If the detachment does staff to the full complement of 135, the city would be on the hook for 90 per cent of those costs.
It's a concept that left some members of council wary.
"it's not a trust issue," said Mayor Shari Green, who noted the potential for the next detachment boss to come before a future council asking for funding for the full contract amount. "It's out there - it could happen."
