Royal Canadian Mounted Police Reform
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner, with the support of Public Safety Canada, is pursuing a transformation agenda to ensure a sustainable organization that delivers modern policing services, one that is healthy, characterized by inclusivity and respect, and trusted by employees, partners and the Canadian public. Success will require continued action to respond to evolving public expectations, address critical issues such as systemic racism and discrimination in policing, and adapt to an evolving criminal landscape.
This note provides an overview of the issues facing the RCMP with a focus on work to reform and modernize the RCMP, as well as some of the actions taken to date in this regard.
Relevant Mandate Letter Commitments
- Enhance the Management Advisory Board to create an oversight role over the RCMP
- Launch an external review of the RCMP’s sanctions and disciplinary regime to determine the adequacy of existing sanctions and whether they are applied properly and consistently
- Engage with provinces, territories and municipalities that contract RCMP services to better connect the RCMP with community social support workers
- Prohibition of neck restraints and the use of tear gas or rubber bullets and national standards for the use-of-force
- Externalize the Independent Centre for Harassment Resolution (ICHR)
- Establish defined timelines to respond to recommendations from the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission;
- Conduct an external review of de-escalation training to make sure it results in the safest possible outcomes for officers and Canadians
Further Information
The RCMP is a complex and multi-faceted organization that is implementing a comprehensive modernization agenda.This has been instigated by a number of factors including the reports and reviews in the last several years that have recommended on organizational reform, including: changes to workplace culture, improved governance and oversight, and sustainability of operations. In addition, the organization is seeing declines in measures of public trust and confidence due to several high profile incidents and awareness of organizational challenges.
In March 2023, Commissioner Michael Duheme was appointed with a continued mandate to modernize the RCMP with a particular focus on supporting employee wellness, addressing harassment and violence in the workplace, and enhancing the organization’s role in reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. While there is much work to do, progress is being made and there is a recognition that in any organization, and particularly one with such a long and storied history, change will take time.
Internally, change has been supported through the RCMP’s Vision 150 and Beyond modernization plan, which is central to shifting the RCMP’s organizational culture, governance practices, workplace capabilities and overall accountability. More recently, a dedicated transformation unit has been created reporting directly to the Commissioner to lead internal transformation, including response to significant reports, such as the Mass Casualty Commission final report. In 2019, the RCMP Management Advisory Board (MAB) was established to provide the Commissioner with expert external advice on the management and administration of the RCMP, including advice on transformation. A modern labour relations regime for the RCMP has been achieved through the signing by the National Police Federation and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat of the first ever collective agreement for non-commissioned regular members and reservists. A second round of collective bargaining is currently ongoing.
Mass Casualty Commission Final Report
On March 30, 2023, the Mass Casualty Commission released its final report on the tragic events that claimed 22 lives in Nova Scotia in 2021. The report contains 130 recommendations and hundreds of additional findings generally grouped within the themes of preventing gender based and intimate partner violence, enabling community safety and well-being, and policing reforms. Of the 75 recommendations on policing, the report calls for operational and cultural reforms to the RMCP as well as a re-visioning of policing nationally, where policing would work in support of a broader community safety framework that considers the social determinants of health.
Workplace Change (Improving RCMP Culture)
Challenges with the RCMP’s organizational culture have been highlighted in multiple reports over the past two decades. For example, the recent report of the Honourable Michel Bastarache detailed violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination experienced by women employed by the RCMP between 1974 and 2017, and outlined the toxic culture of the RCMP over many years. The Bastarache report and those that came before, highlighted the need for sustained changes in key areas to contribute to meaningful changes to workplace culture, including: improved RCMP governance; strengthened diversity and inclusion; improved harassment prevention and resolution; and enhanced leadership development and professionalization.
The RCMP’s public response to the Bastarache report, released in November 2020, commits to a long-term holistic approach to culture change and an RCMP free of workplace harassment, violence and discrimination. The response builds on actions already underway through the RCMP’s broader modernization plan, points to important progress made to date and highlights four priority areas for action, including:
- Improving harassment prevention and resolution, including through the new Independent Centre for Harassment Resolution and an external review of RCMP conduct measures;
- Addressing systemic barriers, by expanding the use of Gender-based Analysis Plus across the RCMP, and through the launch of a new Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy;
- Improving recruitment and onboarding, through a recruitment modernization plan and examining changes to the Cadet Training Academy; and
- Enhancing leadership development and training, including through the integration of Leader Character principles in promotions processes to ensure leaders have the skills to support a healthy workplace.
Enhanced Governance and Accountability (Improving Oversight)
There is heightened public awareness around issues of excessive use-of-force and systemic racism in law enforcement organizations. Recent studies conducted by the Angus Reid Institute and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation indicate public concern over police interactions with Indigenous and racialized people, as well as the overrepresentation of these populations in incidents involving the use of deadly force.
Key reports from the CRCC and SECU have made specific recommendations for improved RCMP accountability and oversight, such as reduced response times to reports issued by the CRCC.
In response to several use-of-force incidents, the use of body-worn cameras across the RCMP is being implemented as a means of enhancing transparency and accountability. The RCMP is also taking specific actions to promote de-escalation and the reduction of use-of-force in interactions with the public by updating its mandatory training and de-escalation tools. The RCMP will also improve its data collection practices and is committed to publishing information on calls for service, wellness checks and use-of-force. Additionally, the RCMP has partnered with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) to create a Task Force to standardize and improve police response options at the national level, as well as associated training, focusing on de-escalation, crisis intervention and responding to mental health incidents.
Sustainability of Operations (Restoring Federal Policing Mandate)
Over the past decade, RCMP federal policing resources have steadily declined as a result of government cost saving exercises and RCMP resourcing issues, while the contract policing program has continued to grow. Despite organizational efforts to become more efficient significant funding pressures have persisted.
In May of 2017, a resourcing review of the RCMP conducted by KPMG concluded that RCMP’s overall funding envelope is not sufficient to support its mandate and activities, but addressing this is not simply a matter of increasing financial authorities or increasing cost recovery. The National Security and Intelligence Committee of the Parliamentarians is currently completing a Special Report on the RCMP’s Federal Policing Mandate, and is expected to be completed in the coming months.
Similar to subsequent reviews led by the RCMP and Public Safety since 2017, a number of systemic sustainability challenges are impacting the whole of the RCMP:
- contract policing impacts the whole of RCMP, raises sustainability challenges, and limits resources available to rebuild and modernize federal policing;
- since 2010, RCMP’s ability to execute its federal mandate and responsibilities, and to keep pace with an evolving threat environment has diminished;
- RCMP programs and structures have evolved to largely serve a generalist, front-line policing function as opposed to specialized business lines (e.g., federal policing);
- RCMP’s capacity to recruit and train enough Regular Members (RM) to meet demands across all business lines is increasingly challenged; and
- not all costs related to policing in contract jurisdictions are being recovered.
Provincial/Territorial and Key Stakeholder Perspectives
The administration of justice, including policing, falls under the constitutional responsibility of provinces and territories who delegate fiscal and governance responsibility to larger, urban municipal governments. Jurisdictions that contract RCMP policing services expect to be meaningfully consulted on changes to how the RCMP works.
There is growing concern from provinces, territories and municipalities with:
- the rising cost of policing, including RCMP services, particularly in relation to unionization;
- the shift in federal policing responsibilities due to diminishing resources;
- reduced value-for-money/return on investment for RCMP contract policing services;
- a one-size-fits-all national policing model that does not meet the particular needs of North of 60° communities and in eastern, rural, remote and Indigenous communities; and
- increasing demand for greater control and governance over local policing.
Some provinces and municipalities have indicated they are examining a transition of policing services from the RCMP to independent police services. While the policing transition in the City of Surrey continues to evolve, the town of Grand Prairie, Alberta is committed to transitioning to their own police service. The policing contracts commit the federal government to working with any contract partner who wishes to terminate their contract. Lessons learned from the City of Surrey transition process will be useful to inform an efficient transition process for others in the future, that ensure public safety and confidence in policing services remains the focus.
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