National President, David Neufeld, Regional Vice-President Bella Skalin and Director of Labour Relations, Rebecca Thompson, visited the RCMP detachment in North Bay, Ontario, to meet with the local membership. They were greeted by local stewards Kent Read and Allan Boomhour and were provided with a tour of the site.
Both National President Neufeld and Regional Vice-President Skalin were very excited to learn about the work of our members for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) located in North Bay. The CAFC is the central fraud repository in Canada that collects information and criminal intelligence on fraud schemes, such as mass marketing fraud.
This unit gathers information on frauds and criminal organizations, analyzes the information for connections between suspects and between victims and prepares investigative reports. The unit provides valuable assistance and intelligence to law enforcement and regulatory agencies in the whole of North America and abroad.
Fraud is a global problem and the information received through this center helps to identify new or unique scams early on and allows law enforcement, the media, businesses and other agencies to activate prevention and awareness measures. One of the Center’s key roles is to educate the public about fraudulent schemes.
During the meeting with the local membership, many question were directed towards President Neufeld and RVP Skalin regarding the recently signed Collective Agreement and its impact on the membership. One key area of interest was the Letter of Agreement (LOA) on telework and how it could be utilized by the membership to secure telework as part of their future working conditions. Given that many members in North Bay work in a call center environment, it was identified that the work could be done in a hybrid format and with a higher number of offsite hours. Many members shared that they believed they are more efficient when working in a hybrid environment.
The USJE representatives also received a number of questions around workload/resource issues, staffing (the impact of long-term acting assignments) and classification of positions. President Neufeld and RVP Skalin shared their thoughts on how to raise these issues with local RCMP management and to seek resolutions at the local level. RVP Skalin shared her intent to work with the site management and the Local to find solutions that could improve the overall working environment for our members.
President Neufeld and RVP Skalin would like to thank the Acting OIC, Stephen Brown, for his support of the site visit and for demonstrating a commitment to working with the union in the future.
These RCMP members in North Bay perform incredible work that help to serve Canadians across the country and contribute to North American security. USJE thanks you for your service and for your contributions to helping keep Canadians (and Americans) safe from various types of fraudulent criminal activity online, by mail, door-to-door and via telephone.