How Paid Duty Differs Across Canada

Policing is not organised the same way across the country

Before the paid duty differences make sense, the structure underneath them has to. Ontario and Quebec are the only provinces that run their own provincial police forces. Everywhere else, provincial policing is carried out by the RCMP under contract, and many municipalities are policed the same way — alongside municipal and regional services that run their own operations.

So an officer in one province and an officer in another may be doing the same work under a completely different employer, a different agreement and a different set of rules for extra work.

Ontario

The busiest paid duty environment in the country, for the legal reason set out on the how it works page: traffic direction and road closures are restricted to sworn officers, so construction, events and filming all generate steady demand. Municipal and regional services run central paid duty offices, most of them now with online booking, and the provincial force has its own arrangements.

Ontario is also where you will most often hear the work called paid duty or pay duty rather than anything else.

Quebec

The other province with its own provincial force, alongside municipal services. Terminology and process differ from Ontario, and so does the language the work is arranged in. If you are transferring in, the assumption that things work the way they do in Ontario is the one to drop first.

The RCMP

Worth reading carefully, because the words do not mean what they mean elsewhere. Extra duty in the RCMP generally refers to time worked over and above your scheduled hours in order to deliver the policing the force is contracted to provide. Outside employment is treated as secondary employment, governed by the collective agreement and by conflict of interest policy, and it requires a written request that goes to your supervisor and then up for authorisation.

An RCMP member and a municipal officer using the phrase “extra duty” to each other may not be describing the same thing at all.

Atlantic Canada

Municipal services and the RCMP frequently police the same region under different arrangements, which means two officers working the same streets can have different rules for extra work. Some services run the annual list model, where officers put their name down once a year for extra duty assignments and can come off the list at any time but only join at the start.

What actually travels

Very little. The word for the work, who books it, how it is handed out, what it pays, what you are allowed to accept and how far ahead you find out — all of it is set locally. What does travel is the problem underneath: knowing which assignments your rotation lets you take, and keeping your own record of what you worked and what was paid.

That part is the same whether you are in Ontario, on the coast or at a detachment.

This page describes how paid duty generally works. It is not policy and it is not advice. Your service's paid duty office and your collective agreement set the terms that apply to you.

How paid duty differs across Canada