Police chief says he needs Quebec's help to avoid a net loss of officers

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Montreal’s police force has made great strides in hiring new officers, but unless more spots open up to train them, it could end up with a net loss this year, chief Fady Dagher said.

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Dagher, who was sworn in to lead Montreal police 13 months ago, has made recruitment of new officers — especially those coming from minority communities and diverse backgrounds — one of his main areas of focus.

Speaking at a news conference, Dagher told reporters the force has signed enough new job offers to add roughly 100 officers to its ranks, compared to a net gain of only 10 a year ago.

Dagher said one of the problems has been finding new police officers who want to work in Montreal. However, this year, the police force has made employment offers to 430 future officers who have graduated the three-year technical program at CEGEP and must now undergo a 15-week training course at the Nicolet-based École nationale de police du Québec. With roughly 300-350 expected to retire or be transferred this year, that would allow the force to begin making a dent in its chronic shortage of officers.

The problem, however, is Montreal police only have a pre-determined number of spots to train officers at Nicolet.

“In 2024, we need 430 police officers, but the capacity of Nicolet is just 250 to 270, because they have other police departments in Quebec,” Dagher told The Gazette in an interview. “So we will be down 50 to 80 officers at the end of the year. We know the wall is coming.”

Dagher said it’s a frustrating situation, because while he has found the number of officers he needs to boost his ranks, he could end up with fewer of them at the end of the day. Those who receive job offers, but have no space at Nicolet, will probably end up getting hired by other forces, he explained.

He’s hoping the province’s public security ministry, which designates the places, will make an exception for Montreal.

In a statement, Public Security Minister François Bonnardel said the province already recently increased the capacity of Nicolet.

“We are aware of the labour needs of the different police forces in Quebec and that’s why we increased the capacity of (Nicolet) by 50 per cent last year so that Quebec can train 1,000 new police officers every year,” Bonnardel said.

His spokesperson, Maxime Bélanger, pointed out the Montreal police force has not always filled all the spots it was given at Nicolet, and said according to the province’s predictions, Montreal will only use 239 out of the 337 spots reserved for its officers, leaving space for about 100 officers.

Dagher disputed that, saying his recruiters were able to find 430 officers. This is the first year the force has been able to not just fill, but exceed the number of spots. He’s asking the province to allow Montreal police to have 430 spots for each of the next two years.

“We have the officers, we just need to be able to train them,” Dagher said.

jmagder@postmedia.com

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