Nunavut signs 20-year policing deal with RCMP

The Government of Nunavut announced April 11 that it’s signed the RCMP to a 20-year policing contract that expires until 2032.

The new territorial police services agreement came into effect April 1.

“Today is a significant milestone for RCMP contract policing,” said Vic Toews, the federal public safety minister, said in a news release.

The deal “reshapes the relationship” between the GN and the RCMP, the news release said, so this “remains transparent, efficient, and effective.”

“Through this new arrangement we will also strengthen our cooperation with our territorial and provincial counterparts who have signed similar agreements,” Nunavut justice minister Dan Shewchuk said.

The new deal provides for the creation of a new contract management committee, where provinces and territories that contract with the RCMP will work together on costs and service improvement.

The agreement also has new clauses to promote the use of Inuktitut within the force and to encourage more Inuit officers in Nunavut.

Also, local detachments, across Nunavut, will get more support, the news release said.

The GN will spend about $29.6 million this year and a similar amount annually until 2015 on the RCMP contract, to pay for 152 positions in Nunavut, including regular RCMP members, civilian workers and public servants.

Priorities for the RCMP, cited in the business plan for the GN’s justice department, include:

• an internship program to train Inuktitut-speaking call operators;

• hiring a youth strategist; and,

• continuing efforts “to increase capacity to communicate in the Inuit language within the RCMP.”