Charging Fees for Police Services (Details)

Name of province/ territory:

Quebec

City/ Region:

Quebec

Description of Initiative:

The exponential increase in non-standard vehicle movement and road improvements were adding significant pressure to regular policing operations. To offset this problem, fees are now being charged for police escorts of non-standard vehicles and for management of road safety at certain road construction sites.

Initiative Key Objectives:

The objective of the initiative is to ensure the availability of police resources at the time and place required for haulers and to preserve the human resources and budgets allocated for police operations.

Section Responsible for Implementation:

Road safety and recreational tourism service

Key Contact:

Yves Bouchard
yves.bouchard@surete.qc.ca

Groups/ Agencies/ Key Partners Involved:

  • private agencies/corporations
  • other government departments/agencies

Level of Involvement (consultative - information sharing) and/or cooperative - direct involvement):

Cooperative

Amount of Time Initiative has been in Place:

Since 2006.

Reason for Undertaking the Initiative:

Economic and human resource concerns.

Resources Required to Implement this Initiative:

The Sûreté du Québec has charged $2,468,892 for police escorts of non-standard vehicles (equivalent to 32,068 overtime hours) and $733,923 (equivalent to 10,909 overtime hours) for the monitoring of road construction sites for fiscal year 2011-2012. Overtime is used for all non-standard vehicle police escorts and monitoring of construction sites. This initiative used the following resources during its implementation phase: police escorts for non-standard vehicles required 15,162 hours of police work during the first three years fees were charged, and monitoring of road construction sites required 27,893 hours.

These police operations consist of escorting non-standard vehicles on the road network and monitoring (patrol, regulating traffic, speed cameras, etc.) construction areas where road improvements are being done.

With respect to escorts of non-standard vehicles on the road network, the feasibility of this action required a legislative change to the Police Act, which was carried out by the Ministère de la Sécurité publique. The monitoring of road construction zones is the result of a bipartisan agreement between Quebec’s Ministère des transports and Sûreté du Québec, which is renewed on an annual basis.

Method of Implementation:

Phased in over three years via the following steps:

  • legal validation and justification;
  • approval from authorities (senior management, ministry, etc.);
  • negotiation and signing of contracts with major companies; and
  • after two years, charging of fees to the entire non-standard transportation sector.

Key Outcomes of the Initiative:

During fiscal year 2011-2012, we received over $2.5 million through these fees. All the non-standard vehicle escorts were conducted by police officers on overtime, which frees up personnel during regular hours.

Availability of a Communication Strategy:

Yes

Key Messages used to Publicize the Initiative:

This initiative will ensure better service and continuity of services.

Forms of Evaluation by which the Initiative will be Assessed:

  • internal

Evaluation Completed or Community Feedback Received:

No

Summary of the Outcomes:

To date, clients are very satisfied with the new way of doing things.

Summary of the Performance Measure Data Collected:

N/A

Economics of Policing Pillars:

Further Details:

Cost recovery

Additional Comments or Suggestions:

N/A

Record Entry Date:

2013-08-01

Date modified: