Police contract ratified by police board

In this March 2, 2016, file photo, Cornwall Police Board vice chairman Pat Finucan listens to another member of the board. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston, File)

CORNWALL – Cornwall’s police board has ratified a new collective agreement for most of the force, clearing the first hurdle for the contract.

Lead negotiator Pat Finucan tells CNW the contract is a “good arrangement all the way around” following the vote during a private session of Wednesday’s police board meeting.

Details of the contract are not being released until it’s ratified by the membership on May 12, 2016.

Around 130 unionized members of the police force – including front-line officers, office staff and dispatchers – have been without a contract since the end of 2015.

The tentative contract was reached after four days of bargaining last month, characterized by both sides as some of the smoothest negotiations in recent memory.

The last collective agreement had increases of 2.75 per cent in 2013, 2.5 per cent in 2014 and 1.5 per cent in 2015.

At the end of the last year, an entry-level, first-class constable was making $90,475.