Witness Protection Program Act - Annual report: 2015-2016

Background

This is the twentieth Annual Report on the Witness Protection Program (WPP) as required by section 16 of the Witness Protection Program Act.

The WPP continues to be an effective tool for law enforcement to combat terrorism and organized crime. In the last year, in partnership with its many stakeholders, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has continued to work at implementing a number of significant enhancements in order for the Program to become more accountable, effective and protectee focused. The Program remains available to not only the RCMP, but to all law enforcement agencies in Canada and to foreign agencies. In addition, with the coming into force of Bill C-51 on November 1st, 2014, the Program is now available to any federal department, agency or service that has a mandate relating to national security, national defence or public safety matters.

The statistics included in this report are based on the services provided by the RCMP between April 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016. Protectees include individuals from RCMP cases, protectees referred by other Canadian police services and foreign protectees under subsection 14(2) of the Act. Protection given under subsection 14(2) is on a cost-recovery basis, including the related expenses of RCMP personnel.

Services provided

The following is a breakdown of services provided to the law enforcement community (Tables 1 and 2):

Admission

During this period, the RCMP considered a total number of eighty two cases for admission purposes. Twelve protectees were admitted to the Program, all of whom were granted a secure name change.

Eleven protectees accepted in the Program resulted from RCMP cases. One international protectee was admitted.

The RCMP provided assistance to other Canadian law enforcement agencies during the last year, as specified under paragraph 6(1)(a) of the Act but did not admit any protectees on behalf of other Canadian law enforcement agencies.

Twenty five cases were provided with alternative methods of protection. Alternative methods of protection are provided in cases where individuals refuse to be admitted into the WPP or fail to meet the criteria for admission into the Program. Some of the reasons stated for the refusals include the conditions imposed and an unwillingness to relocate.

Fluctuations related to admissions from year to year are largely due to: law enforcement activities during the fiscal year; single protectees, rather than those with dependents, being admitted to the Program; and variables outside the administration of the Program.

Termination

There were ten cases of termination from the Program this year, six cases of voluntary termination and four cases of involuntary termination under section 9 of the Act.

General

There were no cases of civil litigation filed against the RCMP WPP during the reporting period.

Cost of the Program

The RCMP is providing Parliament with a list of the costs to administer the WPP. Amounts provided are for those incurred by the RCMP only. These do not take into considerations expenses incurred by other law enforcement agencies.

The total cost of the administration of the Program for the reporting year was $9.390 M. As detailed in Tables 3 and 4, this amount includes wages for personnel, expenses, travel costs, administrative and protectee relocation expenses.

Graph 1: Summary of WPP Statistics 2014/2015 and 2015/2016

Image Description

This graph provides a summary of the Witness Protection Program (WPP) statistics, comparing the numbers from 2014/2015 to 2015/2016. This graph looks at cases assesses for the WPP (81 in 2014/2015 and 82 in 2015/2016), protectees admitted in the WPP (23 in 2014/2015 and 12 in 2015/2016), total secure identity changes (23 in 2014/2015 and 12 in 2015/2016), voluntary terminations (12 in 2014/2015 and 6 in 2015/2016), involuntary terminations (5 in 2014/2015 and 4 in 2015/2016), refusal of protection by witnesses (28 in 2014/2015 and 49 in 2015/2016), lawsuits/complaints (3 in 2014/2015 and none in 2015/2016) and alternate methods of protection (20 in 2014/2015 and 25 in 2015/2016).

Graph 2: RCMP Expenditures 2015/2016

Image Description

This graph provides a list of RCMP expenditures for 2015/2016, including RCMP Compensation for $4,456,358.43; Public Servant Compensation for $966,607.04; Other Police Department Secondments for $86,330.67; Travel for $417,844.17; Administration for $534,074.48; Witness Protection Expenses for $2,005,947.05; Miscellaneous for $914,989.81; and, Civil Litigation Costs for $7,169.00. The total amount is $9,389,320.65.

Date modified:

2016-10-06