By Liam Casey and Allison Jones
Ontario Provincial Police officers are now the highest paid in the province, their union says, after they ratified a four-year deal last week.
The contract covers 2023 to 2026 and the officers will see raises of 4.75 per cent retroactive to the first year of the deal, followed by an increase of 4.5 per cent in the second year and 2.75 per cent raises in each of the last two years of the deal.
By the end of the deal, a first-class constable will earn a salary of $123,194, said the Ontario Provincial Police Association, the union that represents about 10,000 officers and civilian employees.
"We're very happy with the deal," said John Cerasuolo, the association's president.
"We had fallen behind our provincial policing partners to 32nd in the province and it's become very, very competitive over the last few years in the policing profession to attract and retain people."
The force went to arbitration for its last contract in 2019 shortly before Premier Doug Ford's government passed a law, known as Bill 124, which capped wages for public sector workers. OPP officers were caught up in that new law, which did not apply to municipal workers.
That meant other police forces across the province were not subject to the wage cap.
Unions challenged Bill 124 in court in 2022, arguing it was unconstitutional.
First a lower court agreed, which was followed earlier this year by a ruling from the Court of Appeal that also found the law unconstitutional. Shortly after that decision, the province chose not to try to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada and instead decided to repeal the law entirely.
"Bill 124 came into play and we did not want to subject our members to a one per cent increase over the first three years of any contract, so our strategy was to wait it out," Cerasuolo said.
Once the Appeal Court found the law unconstitutional in February, the union went to management to begin negotiations.
The OPP said little about the deal.
"A new OPPA collective agreement for uniform and civilian members was ratified on July 18, 2024," said OPP spokesman Robert Simpson. "The agreement applies to the period of January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2026."
Over 75 per cent of union members participated in the ratification vote and, of those, 88 per cent voted in favour of the deal for uniformed officers, and 93 per cent voted in favour of the agreement that applied to civilian members.
The union also secured more mental health coverage for its members. The force had struggled with active and retired police officers dying by suicide. The force lost 10 current or former members in 2018 alone, which prompted a coroner's review.
Out of that review, the union and the OPP created an integrated mental health program for both active and retired members. But part-time contracted civilians were left out.
That has changed with the new deal, Cerasuolo, of the police union, said.
"That was one of the big pluses," he said.
This is a corrected story. An earlier version had incorrect results of the ratification vote.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 25, 2024.
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