Three measures to protect public safety
USJE represents just over 19,000 federal public safety personnel (PSP) who work day in and day out to keep Canadians safe. USJE’s Public Safety Personnel work both on the frontline and behind the scenes providing crucial operational, programmatic and administrative support to keep Canada’s public safety network strong.
This includes thousands of USJE’s members who work at one of the over 700 RCMP detachments across the country, or who provide crucial operational expertise at the regional and/or national levels supporting local, national and international public safety priorities
At the federal Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), thousands more of our members either work directly with offenders or contribute to the supervision, intervention, rehabilitation, education, training and mentoring of them through their terms of incarceration or their reintegration to the community on parole.
Within federal Prosecutions and Court Administration Services, and the Ministry of Justice, federal public safety personnel are part of the dedicated legal teams preparing complex cases for trial or supporting the day-to-day administration of justice.
Across 18 federal departments nationwide, USJE’s federal public safety personnel also oversee elaborate emergency prepared plans, continuously assess the risk of federal offenders, support crucial administrative functions within the RCMP and the federal court system, as well as protect the privacy and security of Canadians and their access to information.
USJE’s members know what it takes to keep Canadians safe, and our members are passionate about ensuring Canada’s public safety network is strong. Consequently, we are appealing to all parties to support the Government of Canada to minimally undertake these three measures to protect the safety and security of Canadians.
Protect the RCMP
The RCMP has a long history of serving our country and has the infrastructure, experience, and local knowledge to continue doing so effectively. The potential creation of new independent provincial police services in several parts of the country risks disrupting the current law enforcement ecosystem, causing competition for recruits and resources, and will potentially weaken the RCMP and other municipal police services, especially in rural and remote areas. The financial and operational impacts of a transition away from the RCMP are significant, not to mention the potential loss of expertise from the thousands of federal public service employees who work in the 150 communities that the RCMP serves.
The Government of Canada already funds 30 percent of the RCMP’s policing budget for provincial police services, while the provincial government funds 70 percent. The cost of contract policing is shared with contract jurisdictions based on population. For provinces and territories with a population under 15,000, the ratio is 70 percent provincial and 30 percent federal. For municipalities with a population over 15,000, the ratio is 90 percent provincial and 10 percent federal. USJE is urging the Government of Canada to work collaboratively with provinces to enhance the resources and support for the RCMP to ensure the safety and security of all Canadians.
Reform the antiquated federal legislation, Government Employees Compensation Act (GECA)
It has been established that Public Safety Personnel experience higher rates of job stressors which can lead to occupational stress injuries. By virtue of working within the public safety realm, our members regularly interact with criminalized persons, traumatic, violent and/or graphic materials as well as have exposure to incidents that can lead to post-traumatic stress and related injuries.
The federal Government Employees Compensation Act (GECA) is a piece of legislation that has not fundamentally changed since its establishment 50 years ago. As it is currently written, it leaves behind tens of thousands of federal public safety personnel who suffer from psychological injuries owing to their efforts to keep Canadians safe from coast to coast to coast. These federal public safety personnel are largely overlooked by the Government of Canada even though they are regularly exposed to traumatic incidents, materials, victims and criminalized persons.
USJE urges the Government of Canada to immediately make key changes to GECA which would ensure that Federal public safety personnel—many of whom are regularly denied Worker’s Compensation by provincial/territorial boards for their injuries—would finally have access to the compensation and support they so deserve.
USJE’s proposed changes to the Government Employees Compensation Act would broaden the entitlement among federal public safety personnel to presumptive injury claims for work-related psychological injuries.
Invest in Public Safety Personnel in order to Reduce Potential Risks to Public Safety
It has been established that Public Safety Personnel, experience higher rates of job stress which can lead to occupational stress injuries. By virtue of working within the public safety realm, our members regularly interact with criminalized persons, traumatic, violent and/or graphic materials as well as have exposure to incidents that can lead to post-traumatic stress and related injuries.
Given what we know about the potential psychological impact of this work on Public Safety Personnel, in order to contribute to the mental well-being of federal public service employees and by extension their ability to undertake critical activities that support public safety, it is imperative that they are not asked to do more with less. To protect Canadians, they simply must have the time and resources to do their jobs well.
When caseloads or workloads go up, there is a direct impact on employees whose capacity to assess the potential risk of federal offenders on release, prepare cases for trials or hearings, manage sensitive databases, support investigations, among other duties on behalf of Canada’s criminal justice system, becomes compromised. Unfortunately, when departments and agencies are asked to make cuts, it is often USJE’s members who bear the direct burden of these cuts. Yet, the work USJE members undertake is often very complex and high stakes, and for which there are very real and negative long-term consequences if sufficient time and resources are not provided.
USJE is appealing to all parties to protect Canada’s federal public safety personnel in ongoing and future deficit reduction efforts. Department and agency heads must be instructed to refrain from using USJE members – who comprise the operational backbone of many of its key public safety activities- as the means to achieving their financial targets. The effects of the Deficit Reduction Action Plan 2014 are still being felt today in 2024. The more recent initiative, Refocusing Government Spending to Deliver for Canadians Phases 1 and 2, is already impacting workloads among many of USJE members.
