RCMP’s union reaches tentative deal with Ottawa — a first in Mountie history | CBC News

“This new collective agreement will provide RCMP members with fair, competitive compensation after falling behind other provincial and municipal police services for far too long and going without a raise for four-and-a-half years,” said union president Brian Sauvé in a statement.

 “It will also help create a more clear, predictable, and defined workplace for all Members, and support recruitment and increased resources benefiting all Canadians.”

A union spokesperson said the deal will now be sent to the membership to review, with plans to ratify sometime this summer.

No other details about the deal were made available, but any kind of pay boost could put new pressure on budgets for multiple levels of government.

The salary talks also come at a moment of national and international reckoning over police budgets, driven by in-custody deaths in the United States and investigations of Canadian police services’ use-of-force policies.

Since the start of negotiations, Sauvé has said his goal is to bring Mounties in line with other police agencies.

According to RCMP wage figures last updated in 2016, a constable makes between $53,000 and $86,110, while a staff sergeant can make between $109,000 and just over $112,000.

A constable for the Edmonton Police Service, meanwhile, makes between $69,107 and $112,427, according to the EPS website.

RCMP members been fighting for years to get to this stage. Until 2015, RCMP officers had been barred from forming a union since the 1960s, when other federal public servants gained the right to collective bargaining. It was one of the only police forces in Canada with that restriction.