Skip to content

Snow to melt police contract freeze

Provincially appointed arbitrator Howard Snow will deliver a binding agreement between the North Bay Police Services Board and the North Bay Police Association within the next few months.


Provincially appointed arbitrator Howard Snow will deliver a binding agreement between the North Bay Police Services Board and the North Bay Police Association within the next few months.

An arbitration hearing was held Friday at the Best Western Hotel, with the association and the North Bay Police Services Board pitching their positions to Snow and being over 50 per cent apart on the main wage issue.

The association wants a six per cent increase for its entire membership, Snow was told, while the board has offered a 2.25 per cent hike for civilians and 2.55 per cent for uniforms.

Association lawyer Ian Rowland told the arbitrator his client is also seeking a 12 per cent increase for special constables and the court coordinator, as well as pay hikes for senior constables.

A previous contract expired Dec. 31, 2003, so negotiations had been ongoing for a new pact.

But talks between the association and the board broke down several months ago and a mediation session with Snow Thursday failed as well.

The contract Snow delivers will only be for one year, though, at the request of the association.

“We did that because we believe the board was not bargaining with us in good faith from the get-go,” association vice president Sgt. Rick Dubeau told BayToday.ca following the four-hour arbitration session.

Snow can only deal with monetary issues on a retroactive agreement, Dubeau added, and unresolved issues will have to be dealt with in negotiations for the next contract.

Dubeau said the six per cent increase would bring the North Bay Police Service close to the Sudbury Police Service and the OPP Northern Ontario detachments.

As well, he said, special constables are paid far less than their regular constable counterparts on the service, a problem common across Ontario.

The association also wants senior constables to receive increases of three, six and nine per cent after eight, 17 and 23 years of service respectively, but would agree to see those increases phased-in.

Board lawyer Glenn Christie, who leads the police sector unit of the Toronto firm Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storrie, said there was nothing in the association’s presentation that justified the six per cent increase request and said it would take less to achieve parity with the police services it used as its comparators.

Christie also balked at the association wanting the same increase for civilian and uniform members, saying over the last five years hikes have always been higher for uniforms.

The board offer, Christie said, was based on the recently signed five-year agreement signed between the city of North Bay and its CUPE-represented employees.

The Police Act states an arbitrator must deliver a decision
within a "reasonable" time after a hearing.