Next year’s Codiac RCMP budget for Greater Moncton saw a large increase, climbing from about $50M in 2024 to a little over $59M.
The approved budget contains a 19.61 per cent increase overall. It will include operational enhancements, community and social supports and, most notably, an increased workforce with five new municipal employees and 17 new RCMP officers.
“This is a significant increase in policing,” said Don Moore, Codiac Regional Policing authority chair.
“Last year we added four [officers], the year before that we added five and the 14 years before that we added two.”
To date, there are 156 officers at the Codiac RCMP. These 17 new hires will bring the force up to 173.
“We’re not just increasing positions to increase positions, we’re going to put these people where we need them and also where we were shown through a complete review of our policing services where we can do a lot better,” said Supt. Benoit Jolette, who is the Officer in Charge for Codiac RCMP.
“Mainly it’s in our investigations and follow up investigations with people, whether it’s person or property crimes.”
Jolette adds a lot of this was determined through public consultations and community feed back.
“If we compare ourselves to other RCMP detachments across Canada and municipal police forces, we were much lower in the amount of police officers per population as one of the fastest growing communities in Canada,” he said.
“So, we needed to follow suit and what people are telling us is they want more visibility. They want more follow up and a lot more, I guess, solvency on property crime.”
This increase is expected to be just the beginning. Moore says the goal is to add 46 new officers over the next three years.
“We actually did a work force analysis, something that the municipalities had asked for us to do, and with that work force analysis we came up with a three-year plan. So, 17 new officers for next year, 15 for the year after that and 14 for the year after that,” he said.
“The 17 new officers would largely be in our GIS, our general investigative services unit, but also some for community policing. The year after that is where we hope to have a dedicated traffic unit for Moncton, Riverview and Dieppe.”
Moore says the biggest priority for 2025 is making sure the force can keep up with the needs of policing in the tri-communities.
He says there’s been an increase in population, social issues and also demands on policing, which is why this three-year plan is so essential.
On top of an expected expanded workforce, Supt. Jolette says Codiac RCMP plans to host pro-active community consultations to stay up-to-date with what the community is facing and wants to see.
The budget comes into effect Jan. 1 and Supt. Jolette says it will take some time to create and staff the various positions. Adding, realistically, it will probably take four years to completely fulfill their plan instead of three, since positions are typically staffed within 12 months of being posted.
“A lot of work’s been done and now [there’s] a lot of work to do to actually create these positions, staff these positions and get going,” he said.
As for where the money is coming from, Moore says it came out of the municipal 2025 budgets.
“It’s roughly 71 per cent paid for by Moncton. It’s roughly 10 per cent paid for by the Town of Riverview and the remainder 19 per cent or so is paid for by the City of Dieppe,” he said.
Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold and the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce were not available for interviews on Tuesday.
