Police turf war brewing in Quebec

The association representing municipal police forces in Quebec has filed a motion in Superior Court to try to force St-Hyacinthe to end its policing agreement with the Sûreté du Québec.

The town, located east of Montreal in the South Shore region, disbanded its local police in 2002 following the forced merging of municipalities on and around the island of Montreal and turned policing over to the provincial police force.

On Feb. 11, 2009, it renewed its agreement with the SQ and Quebec's Public Security Ministry until 2019. But the Quebec Federation of Municipal Police Forces says that renewed contract is illegal because it extends beyond the interim time period that cities created by mergers were given to use provincial instead of local police.

"When [Quebec] decided to do the reform of policing in 2001,  all the cities that were more than 50,000 people that were [created] from a merger … were allowed ... to be served by the Sûreté du Québec for 11 years," said the president of the federation, Denis Côté.

On Jan. 1, 2002, Saint-Hyacinthe amalgamated with five neighbouring towns. At the time of the 2006 federal census, it had a population of 55,823.

Côté said extending the city's agreement with the SQ beyond 2013 is illegal.

"And they put an automatic renewal in the contract; for us, that's against the police law," said Côté.

"We don't mind the interim period, but St-Hyacinthe must bring back its municipal police force according to the law."

"The municipal police force was doing a good job there ... They decided to abolish [it] because the government was [offering] them subsidies. They send them a bill for only 53 per cent of the real cost."

Côté said government subsidies save the town about $1-million a year but that the cost is being covered by taxpayers in other municipalities across Quebec.

Court challenge a waste of time, money

"We find the motion abhorrent," said Jean-Guy Dagenais, the president of the Quebec provincial police association.

"It's a waste of time. It's a waste of money, and we think it's shameful.

"Since 2001, everything has been working well, and all the towns have renewed [their contracts] without exception."

The Federation of Municipal Police Forces intends to file similar motions in Superior Court for the towns of Drummondville and Shawinigan.

Cities with populations exceeding 100,000 have to have their own municipal police force, according to the law.