BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

The growing burden of the increasing costs of Sûreté du Québec services on municipal budgets is not the only issue that has local municipal officials reeling. The fact that the number of officers assigned to the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region continues to drop while these costs are rising is an added rub.

Forcing taxpayers to continuously pay more for less is outrageous, Vaudreuil-Dorion Mayor Guy Pilon says.

Despite overall SQ costs rising by in the Vaudrueil-Soulanges region, there will be five fewer officers assigned to the area in 2025 compared with 2024, according to Pilon.

This new drop in staffing is in addition to the 10 officers who were transferred out of the region last year.

“The level of service does not correspond to what we pay,” Pilon said.

And adding to the frustration for Pilon is that fact that elected officials cannot find out how many officers are on duty in the territory at any given time.

“We don’t know how many officers we have (on patrol),” Pilon said.

This information is denied, he says, with the SQ claiming disclosing that number would compromise public security.

“We never know how many officers are on the territory,” he reiterated, explaining that of all the officers assigned, it is not known how many are on vacation, sick leave, maternity or paternity leave, or otherwise unavailable.

The number of officers scheduled during various days of the week or for the various shifts during any given 24-hour period is also not known, Pilon said.

According to an analysis of the SQ costs put together by St. Lazare Mayor Geneviève Lachance, 131 officers were assigned to the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region in 2023. That number was cut to 121 in 2024. Now, it is expected to drop again by five to hit 116.

There were 3,369 officers on the SQ force across the province in 2024, according to Lachance’s analysis. With the total cost of the provincial force this year set at $814.13 million, the cost per officer is $241,653.

In the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region in 2024, the overall cost of policing hit $34.3 million, up from $31.99 million in 2023. This represents a 6.49-per-cent increase.

Based on the number of officers assigned to the region in Lachance’s analysis, the cost per officer in 2024 is $281,513, 16.5-per-cent higher than the provincial average.

It is expected that with the increased costs and lower staffing levels for the coming year that the cost per officer in 2025 will substantially top those levels.