In a word, NO.
Following last week’s grand announcement that Edmonton Police Service would be using Edmonton’s TPO Corps to engage the fentanyl battle, ATU issued a media interview on the topic. Since then, we asked for and got a meeting with Branch Manager David Jones to discuss the ramifications going forward.
Here are the results:
- Signups/hours of work No Change
- Chain of Command No Change
- Work Location TPOs in Transit locations only
- There will be some variance in actual work as TPOs may be paired with EPS Officers.
- There may be a softening of the opposition to improved authorities for TPOs.
- More for TSDs after today’s meetings.
- Collective Agreement will be respected.
This initiative of the Provincial Government started out as directive from the Minister to the City to turn over the TPO Corps to EPS. Through the offices of the Mayor, the City manager and others through to the Branch Manager, it has been massaged into the above bullets.
Overriding the entire discussion is the impetus for it. It appears to be a reaction to the Trump Tarriff problem. Apparently, there is too much fentanyl (almost none) crossing into the US from Canada. I still don’t have an answer to my question of how much fentanyl, cocaine, heroine, illegal firearms, etc. is flowing the other way – into Canada from the US, but that’s another discussion. It’s enough to say that their petty political manoeuvring is not our problem. We know our business. What we need is the proper supports to do our jobs.
In Solidarity,
Steve