Introduction

This document provides information about the employment status of police officers as it pertains to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and the Employment Insurance Act (EIA). Different sections of law apply depending upon the level of government that hires the member of the police force. There are three different levels of government that hire police officers: federal, provincial, and municipal.

Employer responsibilities

All employers are required by law to deduct CPP contributions and employment insurance (EI) premiums from most amounts they pay to their employees. Employers must remit these amounts to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) along with their share of CPP contributions and EI premiums. More information on employer responsibilities and obligations can be found through our Payroll menu page.

Extra duty or special pay duty

Frequently, the services of police officers are required at special events, construction projects, etc. Additional personnel required to deal with these occurrences are arranged through the police forces responsible for the affected jurisdiction. Many of these special functions are performed by off-duty police officers in the form of paid duty; typically referred to as extra duty or special pay duty.

Members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

The employment of members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is included in pensionable employment under paragraph 6(1)(b) CPP unless the employment is covered by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Pension Continuation Act as outlined in Section 6 of the RCMP Superannuation Regulations.

The employment of members of the RCMP is included in insurable employment under paragraph 5(1)(c) EIA.

Provincial police officers

To qualify as a provincial police force, the province must appoint and remunerate its members under an Act governing that province's public service.

Ontario and Quebec are the only provinces that employ provincial police forces.

Ontario Provincial Police

The employment of members of the Ontario Provincial Police is included in pensionable employment under paragraph 6(1)(c) CPP and is included in insurable employment under paragraph 5(1)(d) EIA.

Quebec Provincial Police

The Québec Pension Plan is used to determine the pensionability of the employment of members of the Quebec Provincial Police (Sûreté du Québec).

EI premiums are not required to be deducted because the employment of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) Officers is not insurable.

Municipal police officers

If the police officer is employed by a municipal police force, that member's employment is included in pensionable employment under 6(1)(a) CPP. That police officer's employment is included in insurable employment under paragraph 5(1)(c) EIA.

Extra duty earnings paid directly from the police force

There are cases when an event organizer makes an agreement with a police force to contract off-duty police officers for a specific event and a set fee is negotiated for the services to be provided by the off-duty police officers. In these cases, the police force will be responsible for withholding deductions for CPP and EI from the earnings paid to the off-duty police officers.

The off-duty police officer's employment through extra duty when paid by the police force is pensionable under paragraph 6(1)(a) CPP (municipal police force), paragraph 6(1)(b) CPP (federal), or paragraph 6(1)(c) CPP (provincial police force), and is insurable under paragraph 5(1)(c) EIA (federal/municipal police force), or under paragraph 5(1)(d) EIA (provincial police force).

Extra duty earnings paid directly from a third party

There are cases when an event organizer makes an agreement with a police force to contract off-duty police officers for a specific event, and it is determined that the event organizer will be directly responsible for paying the earnings to the off-duty police officers for the extra-duty services provided. In these cases, the event organizer or user of the services becomes a deemed employer to the police officers and is required to deduct CPP contributions and EI premiums from the worker's earnings.

The off-duty police officer's employment through extra duty when paid by the event organizer or user of the services is pensionable under paragraph 6(1)(a) CPP (municipal police force), paragraph 6(1)(b) CPP (federal), or under paragraph 6(1)(c) CPP (provincial police force), and is insurable under paragraph 5(1)(c) EIA (federal/municipal police force), or under paragraph 5(1)(d) EIA (provincial police force).

Requesting a ruling

If a worker or payer is not sure of the worker's employment status, either party can request a ruling by the CRA to have the status determined. More information on the ruling process is available in How to get a CPP/EI ruling.

For information on the possible implications of a CPP/EI ruling, go to Have you received a CPP/EI ruling?

For more information

To get more information, call the CRA’s business enquiries line at 1-800-959-5525.

Legislative references

• Paragraphs 5(1)(c) and 5(1)(d) Employment Insurance Act
• Paragraph 6(1)(a), (b) and (c) Canada Pension Plan
• Section 6 Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superannuation Regulations