Contract Policing

Background

The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness is accountable for the management and the conduct of the RCMP and for the extent and quality of the services it provides, including under the 166 bilateral Police Service Agreements between the Government of Canada and provincial/territorial and municipal governments where the RCMP is employed by these jurisdictions to provide front line policing. While the Minister is not involved in the day-to-day management of the RCMP and service delivery in contract jurisdictions, the Department supports the Minister’s role as contract policing program authority and provides advice on important management and administrative issues that affect the services under the contracts, have resourcing implications and relate to the relationship with contract jurisdictions.

The RCMP is also accountable to the Minister responsible for policing matters in contract jurisdictions (whereas federal policing duties are managed entirely at the federal level).

When the RCMP is acting as a provincial or territorial police force, it is the provincial/territorial Minister that sets those police services’ priorities. Provincial/territorial ministers can also increase or reduce the number of RCMP officers in their forces (unless the Minister believes the reduction would go below a minimum standard.)

This shared accountability is significant as over 60% of RCMP resources ($2.6 billion) and over 70% of RCMP officers (13,723) are assigned to contract policing in eight provinces (all but Ontario and Quebec), in the territories and in 153 municipalities. Under the contracts, the RCMP is the police service for about 22% of Canada’s population in about 75% of Canada’s geographic land mass and in much of rural Canada.

Under the existing 20-year agreements (signed in 2012 and in effect to 2032), the Government of Canada pays a share of the policing costs of contract jurisdictions — provinces and territories and municipalities with populations under 15,000 now pay 70%, and municipalities with populations over 15,000 pay 90% of eligible costs.

Status

Public Safety Canada and the RCMP have confirmed that there are systemic sustainability challenges impacting the whole of the RCMP:

Considerations

[Redacted]

Next Steps

A dedicated Public Safety-RCMP team is developing proposals to: [Redacted]

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