The Belleville Police Association and the Belleville Police Services Board negotiate a legally binding “collective agreement” every few years to determine set increases to the salaries and benefits of the Belleville Police Service (BPS).
Neither the Association or the Board announced the agreement, unlike Ottawa Police, Toronto Police, Cornwall Police, York Regional Police, Guelph Police, OPP and others which all signed new collective agreements in 2024 and 2025 and issued news releases.
Almost 3 months later, the Board has not emailed a copy of the agreement to OPAAC, which they are required to do “promptly” by the CSPA.
We asked the Police Board for a copy of the latest collective agreement on November 24, 2025. They issued the following statement and did not provide copies of the agreements:
The Belleville Police Service Board is working towards coming into compliance with all aspects of the CSPA and that work progresses in a staged way. The Ministry recognizes our situation and how we are managing this iterative process. I can confirm that BPS Board Collective Bargaining took place on June 16 and June 19, 2025 and the agreements were signed by all parties on September 25, 2025. These agreements shall become effective January 1st, 2026 and shall remain in force until December 31st, 2029 and thereafter until replaced by another agreement.
In the CSPA, the mandated obligation regarding collective agreements is Section 224 (4) as follows:
Notice of desire to bargain
224 (1) If no agreement exists, or at any time after 90 days before an agreement would expire but for section 234, a majority of the members of a police service may give the police service board notice in writing of their desire to bargain with a view to making an agreement, renewing the existing agreement, with or without modifications, or making a new agreement.
Bargaining
(2) Within 15 days after the notice of desire to bargain is given or within the longer period that the parties agree upon, the police service board shall meet with a bargaining committee of the members of the police service.
Same
(3) The parties shall bargain in good faith and make every reasonable effort to come to an agreement dealing with the remuneration, pensions, sick leave credit gratuities and grievance procedures of the members of the police service and, subject to section 231, their working conditions.
Filing of agreement
(4) The police service board shall promptly file a copy of any agreement with the Arbitration and Adjudication Commission.
We trust this correspondence adequately sets forth our position and concludes the issue.
This comes at a time when the Police Board is requesting a very large increase (15%) to the police budget in their 2026 Operating Budget.
After several followups, on December 19, 2025 – 25 days later – the Board confirmed they copies of the agreements had been submitted to OPAAC, and in doing so the Chair “consider this matter closed”. They did not provide a copy of the agreement as requested by a member of the public and resident.
CSPA did not change the requirement to file collective agreements
Police boards were already required to send their collective agreements to the Commission under the Police Services Act:
The board shall promptly file a copy of any agreement with the Arbitration Commission.
Section 119 of the Police Services Act
The introduction of the CSPA did not change this requirement, but the name of the organization changed from the Ontario Police Arbitration Commission (OPAC) to the Ontario Police Arbitration and Adjudication Commission (OPAAC).
Police boards that have submitted 2025 collective agreements
As of December 2025, the following police boards have submitted their collective agreements to OPAAC:
- Deep River 2025-29
- Durham 2025-29
- Kawartha 2025-27
- Ottawa 2025-29
- Peel 2025-29
- Waterloo 2025-29
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