PAO’s 2023 Lobbying Priorities Focus on Staffing

By Michael Duffy

The Police Association of Ontario (PAO) is the official provincial representative body for over 28,000 sworn and civilian police personnel from 45 police associations across Ontario. A unifying voice for advocacy in policing that was founded in 1933, the PAO provides its member associations with representation, resources and support.

The PAO is involved in a variety of activities at the provincial level on behalf of Ontario’s sworn officers and civilian police service employees. Through lobbying and engagement with government, the PAO has made significant advances on a number of critical pieces of legislation that impact on our membership and the communities that they serve.

In 2023, the PAO’s lobbying efforts are focused on staffing.

When residents of Ontario require assistance, they rely on their local police to be there when they call. Across Ontario, police service employees are there to provide support, resources, education and a wide variety of public services to people in need. The availability of police resources is central to community safety and is the backstop against which all other community endeavours lean for support.

Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, there are not enough people doing police work in Ontario today. Be it police officers or civilian staff, such as 911 communicators, shifts are running below minimums. This has had a corresponding impact on service levels. Response times for police officers are lengthening, and it is customary for people who call 911 to wait for at least several minutes before their call is answered. According to the Auditor General of Ontario, the Ontario Provincial Police frontline has a vacancy rate of more than 25% and as a result the OPP is consistently failing to deliver effective police services1. This issue is not unique to the OPP. In practically every police service in Ontario, positions are unfilled, authorized complement is inadequate and application figures are consistently decreasing.

There is no arguing that police work is difficult. No matter the role, the demands of the job are high and operational stress is common. A generation ago, individuals willingly stood up to take on these difficult roles in great numbers because of their commitment to community service and the understanding that policing was a noble and respected profession. That equation has changed drastically in the last several years. Rather than being venerated in the community, police are frequently disparaged in the press and in social media, in our schools and by various public figures. Despite the fact that Ontario’s police are extremely well-trained in matters such as anti-bias, de-escalation and traumainformed practices, the failures of police services in other parts of North America have an impact on the perception of police here at home.

At the same time, the staffing crisis has made the work more difficult. As the crisis grows, demand for overtime is burning out members and contributing to operational stress. When emergency response is under this much strain, there is simply no operational capacity for things like community policing, outreach and relationship building.

Thankfully, there remain individuals who wish to pursue a career in policing despite these issues. However, these potential candidates are often met with barriers to becoming qualified. For example, the Ontario Police College runs on a model that requires recruits to pay tuition of about $17,000 to complete basic training.

Bill 124, Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019, should be revisited. It should be more nuanced. Bill 124 constrains the bargaining flexibility of unionized employees in the Ontario Public Service which includes members of the Ontario Provincial Police Association, and imposes an increase of 1% on all salaries covered by the subsequent three years of any collective agreement. We all know that limiting wages impacts recruitment of new candidates. It also has an impact on the morale of existing officers at a time when policing in Ontario is already at a breaking point. The PAO anticipates significant impacts on public safety and emergency response if something is not done to alter the current trajectory.

This government has been responsive to other concerns about the challenges posed by Bill 124 to essential services. We note the government’s $5,000 bonus for Ontario nurses announced last March, aimed at retention in that profession. The same flexibility is needed in this case for the OPPA. Ontario’s police personnel face identical pressures, strains and risks as many other frontline personnel. As the Bill 124 era winds down, it’s important that its effect on the future of policing in Ontario not be a reduction in service levels or service quality, but instead be a malleable approach that reflected the unique circumstances facing police personnel, and the value they provide to their communities.

Over the course of Canadian history, we have seen governments take drastic steps to ensure that essential work is being performed at a high-level. We have seen public image and recruitment campaigns succeed in relation to skilled trades and the armed forces. A similar campaign for policing could ward off the coming crisis and encourage young people to consider this noble and rewarding profession again. Efforts to inject funding into policing by establishing hiring grants and defraying the costs of becoming a police officer must be immediately considered.

The PAO and our members are ready and willing to do the necessary work in partnership with the government and other stakeholders to ensure that Ontarians receive the police services they deserve, and our members can continue to go to work knowing that they are part of a wellstaffed organization that can provide them with backup when they need it.

According to the Auditor General of Ontario, the Ontario Provincial Police frontline has a vacancy rate of more than 25%.

Please see the article on the province’s staffing crisis on page 34.