New Brunswick to review policing, consider regionalization

The Department of Public Safety has assembled a task force to look into possible regionalization of the province's police forces.

Public Safety Minister Carl Urquhart said the review comes after a few municipal police forces contacted him, explaining that they usually lend out their expertise to surrounding areas and should get provincial funding to expand regionally.

He said staff, who are set to start immediately and present findings by the end of the year, will look at all aspects of what goes into running a police force.

"There is a trend towards looking at new models of policing, including regional collaboration. With more calls for new models of service, the Department of Public Safety will be reviewing how to ensure that there is an adequate level of service for all New Brunswickers and that costs are appropriately shared," Urquhart said in a statement.

I want to know, is that a good way to do it or are people quite content with the way it's being done now?- Carl Urquhart, Public Safety minister

He'll be looking at local service districts, municipalities or any areas that want to change how they're policed.

"There's got to be some standard that if you do it in Saint John that's got to be the same way you do it in Bathurst or the Acadian peninsula, [and] that what you do is not going to adversely affect what's next to you," Urquhart said in an interview.

During the review, the province will consult with municipalities, consider "regional co-operation," and centralized services.

New Brunswick has seven municipal police forces and two regional police forces — Kennebecasis Regional Police Force, which covers Rothesay and Quispamsis, and the BNPP Regional Police covering Beresford, Nigadoo, Petit-Rocher and Pointe-Verte in the north.

The RCMP cover nine municipalities through direct agreements with the federal government.

New Brunswick's remaining 76 municipalities and local service districts are policed by the RCMP through the Provincial Police Services Agreement, where the provincial government pays the federal government for the RCMP's regional services and then bills the municipalities quarterly.

Police experience

Urquhart said he was a police officer for 33 years, 28 of those at the Fredericton Police Force. While working there, he encountered some discontent with the contract and arbitration process, he said.

"We would be negotiating with the city," he said. "If you expanded into a regional policing, the negotiation would be done with a police board or a commission that cover that area, and I want to know, is that a good way to do it or are people quite content with the way it's being done now?"

Step in the right direction

Chanel Roy, president of the New Brunswick Police Association and interim president of the Grand Falls chapter, said the Grand Falls Town Police has been trying for two years to expand regionally.

"First of all it's job security for police officers," he said. "The bigger you are, the stronger you are of course."

He cited a report by Jean-Guy Finn, a former senior New Brunswick civil servant who led a commission on reforming local governance, that called for municipalities and local service districts to be merged into 53 from 371.

The report has not made much impact since it was written in 2008, but Roy said the province looking into possible regionalization of police forces is "a step forward."

But Roy is cautiously optimistic because he's not sure how much change will actually come from this review.

"Talking about it and doing it is another story," he said. "The New Brunswick Police Association, we do not hire people, we do not fire people, so it's up to the local governance to work with the province and to make this happen."