Your Corrections and Sheriff Services Component scheduled a meeting with Court Services to discuss issues of ongoing concern to Deputy Sheriffs. Component 1 Vice President, Dean Purdy and David Vipond, Director of Negotiations met with the ADM of Court Services, Kevin Jardine and Chief Sheriff Paul Corrado on October 2nd at the Victoria Court House.

The primary issue of concern was expanding the designation of a Deputy Sheriff as "a special provincial constable" under the Police Act, further than is currently the case to enable a greater scope of duties, including: access to Prime and CPIC databases to enter and vacate warrants; and designation as a public safety occupation for pension purposes and eligibility for the Normal Retirement Age 60 pension rule. It would also provide some further protection against civil and criminal litigation when Deputy Sheriffs assist police in some enforcement measures or when they exercise judgement to enforce the law when they witness infractions beyond exigent circumstances. However, there are legislative impediments to this designation which require an amendment in the legislature.

We also need recognition by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that the duties of Deputy Sheriffs in BC fall within the CRA definition of police. The BC government and the BCGEU, as partners to the Public Service Pension Plan, tried to get a favourable ruling from the CRA a couple of years ago but the CRA declined. An appeal to the federal finance minister, Jim Flaherty, regarding this decision also failed. The Ministry of Justice is once again considering pursuing this with the CRA directly, noting increases in the amount of law enforcement work performed by BC Sheriffs, whose scope of duties exceed that of sheriffs in most other provinces. If we can obtain a favourable response from the government to this policy change, legislative amendments required in BC will hopefully occur in the new year.

Warrants were also discussed. There is a clear need in several areas. Civil warrants are issued as time permits but there is a backlog. Family law warrants are in need of greater resources to prove service. Criminal warrants are encumbered by limited access to CPIC and a current inability to vacate the warrants when appropriate. If authority can be obtained through an expanded designation of special provincial constable, the ministry will need to obtain additional resources and provide additional training. While it is apparent that this will not occur in the short term, it is the desire of Sheriff Services and other branches of the ministry to increase their scope of practice and become the best sheriff service in Canada. We share this objective but find the delays frustrating. There are many hurdles but we will support these efforts and try to find ways to work better together for this purpose.

Reclassification of Deputy Sheriffs to a higher grid was also discussed. There is a ministry request for the Public Service Agency to undertake its own classification review in addition to measures initiated by the union for a benchmark review and hearing.

Finally, we reviewed the change in security screening being proposed by Sheriffs Services to make it consistent with the screening already in place in Corrections. The union is opposed to the voice stress analyzer and possible polygraph tests for new recruits and will continue to oppose these tests for members after recruitment. If these tests are applied as initial screening before an offer is made, there is little we can do about it because we do not represent members of the public seeking employment.

All in all the meeting was cordial and respectful. We are pleased to share some common purpose in expanding the duties of Deputy Sheriffs, expanding their law enforcement designation and continuing with the classification benchmark process.

In solidarity

Dean Purdy

Vice president, Corrections and Sheriff Services (Component 1)