In the Ontario Provincial Police, which also includes rural policing, their funding model is based on response time, the number of calls and the distance, whereas in first nation policing, the number of officers and civilian staff is arbitrary. It is based on an arbitrary number that is given to first nation police services. There is no real study, with the exception of three police services that Public Safety Canada is under a court injunction to negotiate funding with. Those three services are the Treaty Three Police Service, UCCM and the Anishinabek Police Service. Those three services, because their funding cut off, went to the Federal Court. At the Federal Court, Justice Gascon ruled that Public Safety Canada had to continue negotiating in good faith with those three services.
Right across the country, the numbers are arbitrary. When they're arbitrary, it is not like a municipal service. When I was chief of police of two municipal services, I could come back to the police services board and justify why I needed annual budget increases, and it would be negotiated or discussed with the board. Ultimately, there was legislation that protected the police service and allowed arbitration to occur here in the province of Ontario, whereas that does not occur in first nation policing.