Question
Do police officers get a bonus for how many criminals they catch, or a case they solve, or are members just paid as they rise in the ranks.
Steven Bain
North Vancouver
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Dear Mr. Bain:
Pay in the RCMP is determined by two factors: rank and length of service. As members rise in rank, their pay increases incrementally. In other words, no, we don't receive extra rewards for making arrests or writing tickets although sometimes people accuse us of this. In fact, a drunken man once angrily suggested I had given him a ticket only to fill a quota for a bonus. I quipped back, telling him that thanks to him I had just earned myself a new toaster, a sarcastic jab that paid off by making him laugh and breaking the tension.
RCMP pay rates are set by the Treasury Board Secretariat, which is the administrative branch Canada's Treasury Board. Pay rates for public service employees like the RCMP are set by the federal government.
In addition to competitive benefits packages, RCMP officers are eligible for some additional monetary assistance from the force, depending on their duties. For example, an officer in an isolated post, of which there are more than 260, is sometimes given an extra allowance to offset the higher cost of living. An isolated post is any detachment north of the 60th parallel, which essentially runs along the upper border line of B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, and through Newfoundland and Labrador. For example, Grise Fiord, which is about as far north of Toronto as Argentina is south of it, and whose temperatures dip as low as -62, is an isolated post. The cost of a bottle of Cranberry Cocktail, served over ice or not, can be as high as $38.
As for RCMP salaries, here are some of the numbers:
New cadets are paid a starting salary of slightly more than $48,000, which increases incrementally for three years, when it tops out at $77,944.
An increase in rank comes with a jump of between $4,000 and $5,000 per year, and once an officer has served a year at the new rank, there is a one-time additional raise of around $3,000. Commissioned officers make incrementally more, though they are not eligible for overtime pay. An inspector, who aside from the corps sergeant major holds the lowest commissioned officer rank, makes around $111,000 per year and the deputy commissioner rank, one below the commissioner, earns between $168,000 and $198,000.
As an interesting historical reference: in December, 1962, the Ottawa Citizen reported that the RCMP was awarded a raise. The whopping windfall for my predecessors: an increase from $3,800 to $4,160 per year. The force bugler at the time must have hit a few flat notes during The Rouse because according to the report he was cut out of the lucrative award. His salary remained at $2,400. I'd wager he played an expressively mournful version of Last Post that evening.
Peter DeVries, District West Response Sergeant, North Vancouver RCMP
Follow Peter on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rcmpdevries
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