RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson is “sticking to his guns” and demanding a raise for rank-and-file members that will stop the exodus of Mounties to higher-paying police forces.

The commissioner, who has recently announced he will leave his post, told iPolitics that he rejects the Liberal government’s offer to the RCMP for the same wage deal it has given other public servants.

Paulson said he submitted a proposal to Treasury Board a year ago seeking a more than six-per-cent raise for rank-and-file members who have not had a raise since January 2015. He said that that proposal would stop the wage gap with the country’s top three police forces from growing.

Paulson’s proposed raise would be retroactive: a two-per-cent increase, effective January 2015, followed by a one-per-cent boost in July 2015 and another three per cent in January 2016.

The government has offered the RCMP rank-and-file the same 1.25 per cent a year raise public servants are receiving. The Liberals have four-year agreements with 80 per cent of the public service that will be ratified in the coming months.

For Paulson, that offer is a no-go.

“I am not prepared to indicate to anyone that I Bob Paulson, commissioner of the RCMP, up until June 30, am prepared to accept anything under what we have asked for. If the government decides to unilaterally impose the 1.25 (per cent) it won’t be because I said it was a good idea.”

The RCMP is now lagging 14.4 per cent behind the total compensation packages of the top three forces on the country. The gap is even bigger when it comes to pay alone. There the federal force ranks 72nd out of some 80 police services with more than 50 officers.

A first-class RCMP constable starts at $84,000 a year. A similar officer earns $102,000 with the Calgary police.

The Mounties started to fall behind other police in 2007, as the Conservative government of Stephen Harper started its spending cuts. The RCMP has lost ground ever since.

The Conservatives wanted RCMP increases in line with the rest of the public service. The Conservatives offered both the RCMP and public service 0.5 per cent a year raises before the 2015 election.

Paulson based his proposal on the 2015 business case put together by the RCMP Pay Council, which concluded Canada’s national police force was headed for a recruitment and retention ‘crisis.’

The five-member pay council, created in 1996, advises the commissioner on pay and benefits for regular members from special constable to superintendent. Paulson disbanded it after the Supreme Court of Canada ruling allowed the Mounties to unionize.

“In major centres, Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton, they are taking a lot of our people and our people are making an easy choice to step over to a $20,000 pay raise for the same work,” said Paulson.

The wage battle comes as demands on the force are rising. Recruits are harder to find in an aging labour force and many don’t want postings at detachments in isolated parts of the country such as the North.

Disgruntled rank-and-file Mounties, for whom pay has become a big issue, would pillory Paulson, he says, if he were seen to be willing to accept the 1.25 raise proposal. The government can always impose the deal, which many say would give a much-needed boost to the groups trying to organize the force’s first union.

The pay council recommended the RCMP’s total compensation should be the average of the top three police forces and “not fall below the fourth position.” It also urged RCMP control its own policies and directives, such as for isolated postings, rather than be bound by those for the public service.

Paulson said his suggested raise was based on the expectation that Bill C-7, the legislation to unionize the RCMP, would have been passed by now. He asked for a two-year settlement expecting the new union would negotiate further increases in its first contract with Treasury Board.

“I am sticking to my guns on what I submitted as a pay submission,” said Paulson. “It stops the aggravation of the gap. The gap is widening so it stops that and would be a reasonable place to be while C-7 gets finalized and certification takes place.”

But Bill C-7, which was amended by the Senate and sent back to the House of Commons, seems to have disappeared. Last week, NDP MP Daniel Blaikie grilled Treasury Board President Scott Brison at committee and got few answers.

“We have been giving due consideration to the Senate’s amendments to the bill, we have heard the concerns expressed … and we look forward to providing the government’s response soon and moving forward with the legislative process,” said Brison.

The bill, set in motion by a Supreme Court decision to let the RCMP unionize, has launched the biggest public-sector organizing drive in 50 years.

But RCMP is still a long way from a first contract. There are three groups vying to organize the nearly 18,000 members and by all accounts none are near the threshold to apply for certification.

Until there is a certified union, the RCMP is limbo.

If the Liberals don’t approve Paulson’s proposal, a new union would likely try to negotiate a first contract back to January 2015, which could be a huge cost for the government, especially if the two sides hit an impasse and the matter went to binding arbitration.

Without a raise, the new union would be looking to negotiate an increase up to 24 per cent to bring the RCMP in line with the top 10 police forces.

The National Police Federation, one of the groups trying to organize members, fears the Liberals will impose the public service deal to avoid paying higher retroactive payments.

NPF Co-Chair Brian Sauve said he fears the Liberals will press the independent Senators to delay Bill C-4, another bill that is intended to repeal the Conservative government’s anti-labour measures, which among other things, made it more difficult for certify a union.

With the repeal, Sauve said his association could seek immediate certification with fewer signed up members than the 40 per cent now required from the Public Service Labour Relations Board. A certification application triggers a statutory freeze on the RCMP’s pay and working conditions until the first agreement is reached.

“That’s why we fear they are pressuring senators to delay the bill so they can implement a low pay package and avoid retroactive payments in the future,” Sauve said.

The RCMP has always rejected the government’s attempts to manage its compensation like the rest public service. The RCMP maintains police are unique from public servants and shouldn’t be lumped in with them.

A big fear is that they won’t have the leverage to negotiate the increases they need to keep pace with other forces and Treasury Board will want to keep them in line with the rest of the public service.

The Pay Council was unequivocal that the RCMP should be compared to other police forces, not the public service when negotiating wages and benefits.

“When recommending the appropriate compensation position for members, the RCMP must rely on settlements negotiated by other police forces in its relevant labour market or as established by police arbitral awards, not on compensation increases awarded to other groups within the federal public service,” it said.