RCMP hobbled by century-old policing model: minister's briefing
Force needs money and "new vision," say Public Safety officials
The RCMP receives “insufficient federal investment” to carry out its increased responsibilities as Canada’s national policing service, Public Safety Canada officials have told the minister.
The force must cope with “the rise of social disorder in a post-pandemic environment, and increasing complexity of threats to Canada’s security” while operating under an antiquated policing model that was established almost a century ago, says a presentation for Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc.
“The federal role in policing has remained largely unchanged since the introduction of Contract Policing in 1928 despite multiple reviews recommending transformation of Canada’s national policing service,” says the Nov. 29 document, obtained under the Access to Information Act. (See PDF below.)
The five-page presentation, Future of Policing, is heavily censored with sections removed to protect cabinet deliberations and advice to the minister.
The document was prepared by Public Safety’s crime prevention branch to develop a “new vision for policing in Canada,” driven in part by reports cataloguing recent failures.
The March 30, 2023, report of the Mass Casualty Commission cited numerous lapses in the RCMP’s response to the killing of 22 Nova Scotians in April 2020 by a gunman. The Public Order Emergency Commission Report of February 2023 found similar for policing of the convoy protests in Ottawa in early 2022. And a parliamentary group known as NSICOP, in a report last November, found that the RCMP’s contract policing for the provinces has hobbled its ability to operate as a national police force.
The Public Safety briefing also notes that provinces, and First Nations and Inuit, are demanding reforms to their policing arrangements with Ottawa, and that recruitment and retention of officers has become ever more difficult.
The Liberal government was already known to be re-examining the fundamental role of the RCMP. The Public Safety briefing indicates the process has progressed to the point of considering “Key Decisions and Sequencing of Policy Frame,” as the final redacted page is headlined.
The RCMP itself is developing an internal strategy to implement sweeping reforms proposed by the Mass Casualty Commission which, among many other recommendations, called for the eventual shuttering of the force’s national training academy at Regina, known as The Depot.
RCMP officials had committed to releasing its strategy before the end of 2023, but missed the deadline and to date has not made it public.
“The development and finalization of this strategy has in no way delayed work to respond to the recommendations,” said Robin Percival, an RCMP media-relations spokesperson.
Ottawa’s policing contracts with 150 municipalities and all provinces except Ontario and Quebec expire on March 31, 2032, though can be terminated earlier with two years’ notice.
Ottawa is required to pay 30 per cent of costs for its provincial policing contracts, and 30 per cent or less for municipal contracts, depending in part on the size of the community.
