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SQ Redeployment: The Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean Concern

SQ Redeployment: The Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean Concern

The mayors of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean are concerned about the staffing distribution envisaged by the Security Council of Quebec (SQ).

The police force has begun discussions to return officers to areas of increased workload. MRC Lac St-Jean-Est alone could lose nearly 10% of its workforce.

They are 73 police officers of the MRC service, assigned to the ALMA Center. Rumors indicate that between seven and ten of them will be transferred to other regions.

The other three MRCs in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean are also expected to be affected.

“We were not consulted,” laments the mayor of Alma, Sylvie Beaumont.

SQ has revised the distribution of its workforce across Quebec. The goal is to spread according to the places where the workload is most important, particularly the northern and southern rings of Montreal.

“We will never accept that,” said MRC Governor Maria Chapdelin, Luc Simard. If SQ has staff issues in other areas, let them hire them! SQ should take into account the extent of our territory, and the fact that we receive more and more tourists in winter as in summer.”

SQ officers will meet on Thursday at Chicoutimi headquarters. Elected officials will not attend, but intend to disclose their disagreement, if manpower losses are confirmed.

Is our reality less important than the reality of Montreal? I don’t think so, says Sylvie Beaumont. The government says it is close to the regions and it has to prove it.”

The Minister of Municipal Affairs and in charge of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Andrée Laforest, tried to reassure the region’s governors, at the Fédération québécoise des Municipalités (FQM), Wednesday in Quebec.

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She noted that Sagueni Lac Saint-Jean, with its 182 police officers, was among the best served in an individual.

“This is a work that will continue with Secretary Genevieve Gilbolt,” she said. We cannot say that our services will be less, but it is important to maintain the workforce in the region.”

FQM sent a letter to SQ’s senior management on Wednesday, stating that no formal agreement had been signed.