Efforts to have RCMP officers from other provinces temporarily fill empty slots in Manitoba and help out with a rising vacancy rate are bearing fruit, the province’s top Mountie said Friday.
“I’m told we’ve got upwards of 10 people from out of the division that have been in contact with my team here, and we’re scheduling deployments as we speak,” said Assistant Commissioner Scott McMurchy, the commanding officer of D division, which covers Manitoba.
The RCMP issued an internal memo recently calling for members across the country to help address a shortage of staff in Manitoba and Saskatchewan by relocating for a few weeks this winter and spring.
The “hard” vacancy rate in Manitoba, which accounts for unfilled positions and includes non-front-line jobs, hovered around five per cent a few years ago, McMurchy said, but has since tripled. Add to that so-called “soft” vacancies for things like parental or medical leave, and the number of empty slots is higher, especially in the north.
“We’re running in some places at 50 per cent,” McMurchy said.
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Having to rotate people into areas of high vacancies is not unusual in northern areas of the country, but municipal leaders in southern Manitoba have complained of a recent spike in vacancies in their areas.
Officials have cited several factors.
Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore, the commander in charge of Saskatchewan’s RCMP, has said a policy instituted two years ago that allows cadets to choose their initial placements did not benefit Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
The union representing front-line Mounties said its Manitoba members are under severe workload stress and some have suffered burn out after a record 58 homicides in rural RCMP-covered areas last year.
McMurchy says the RCMP has begun prioritizing new applicants from Manitoba in hopes that they will start their careers in the province.
The union has said the force has also promised to speed up applicant processing — a complex task that includes thorough background checks — in order to get new officers in the field quickly.
The RCMP is also looking at reviving recruitment advertising campaigns.
“We’ve done them in the past, but I think it’s time to do that again, to get the word out that we’re hiring,” McMurchy said.
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