Chapter 6: Thematic Issues
Special Report on the Federal Policing Mandate of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

123. Over the course of the review, the Committee found that many of the challenges identified by Federal Policing were consistent across activity areas. For example, data integrity or financial management issues affect all facets of Federal Policing’s work. Several common themes emerged throughout the review process. These themes are: finance and human resources; recruitment and training; data; prioritization; and intelligence. In this chapter, the Committee addresses each of these thematic areas in turn.

Finance and Human Resources

Finances

124. The RCMP has a complex financial structure. In Fiscal Year 2022/23, its total budget of $6 billion is composed of voted and statutory appropriations ($4.23 billion) and re-spendable revenues ($1.76 billion) that are mainly from provinces and territories. ^{Footnote 217} The majority of funds (89%) go to RCMP operations in the form of employee pay (65%) and operations and maintenance (24%), ^{Footnote 218} with the rest going to capital spending (4%), grants and contributions and statutory benefits (7%), which are almost entirely devoted to disability pensions for police officers injured on-duty. The RCMP's budget is composed in significant part of Special Purpose Allotments, which is funding that can only be used for specific programs or short-term initiatives and cannot be re-allocated to address other financial pressures. The distribution of funds across the RCMP's four core responsibilities shows that Contract Policing accounts for the majority (57%) of RCMP spending (see chart 5 below). ^{Footnote 219}

Chart 5: Composition of RCMP Budget, Fiscal Year 2022/23 and Distribution of Operating Funds among the RCMP's Four Core Responsibilities.

Long description

Composition of Funding by Input Factor

• G&C and Stat Grant 7%
• EBP 9%
• Capital 4%
• O&M 24%
• Pay 56%

Distribution of Operating Funds FY 2022-2023

• Internal services 13%
• National Police Services 12%
• Federal Policing 18%
• Contract and Indigenous Policing 57%

Source: RCMP Financial Structure & Federal Policing Financials, Presentation to the: National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians. December 2, 2022.

125. Between Fiscal Years 2016-17 and 2020-21, funding for the RCMP as an organization has increased (see table 1). There are various reasons for these increases, such as new initiatives (e.g., cybercrime investigations units in 2018), but the most significant resulted from a new funding model for Contract Policing, including new incremental funding (2018/19); financial adjustments (in 2019/20 the RCMP was allocated a one-time payment of nearly $1 billion to address Employee Benefit Plan actuarial adjustments); collective bargaining; pay increases for certain categories of employees; and one-time funding for major events (e.g., the G7). Little of this increase was provided to augment the RCMP'soperational capacity.

126. As with other government departments, the RCMP lapsed money at year end, meaning that it could not spend the funds it was allocated and the money was returned to the fiscal framework. During the same five-year period, the RCMP raised program integrity concerns (meaning that its budget was not sufficient to cover expenses required to fulfill its departmental responsibilities) in the areas of Federal Policing, Specialized Police Services and certain enabling programs, such as recruiting (most of these pressures continue). Although the annual lapses appear significant, the RCMP could not reallocate funds to address its program integrity issues, because the majority of the lapsed funds were located in Special Purpose Allotments. ^{Footnote 220} For example, in 2017/18 the RCMP lapsed $261 million including $5 million of statutory lapses (not including $121 million being re-profiled into a future fiscal year), a lapse of over 7% of its total fiscal spending authority. However, of that amount, approximately $204 million was in Special Purpose Allotments, which were unavailable for reallocation, meaning the RCMP lapsed $52 million of its total authorities (1.5%). Taking these factors into account, the RCMP has been lapsing between 1-3% of its final spending authorities in recent Fiscal Years, most of which were in Special Purpose Allotments; capital funding for dedicated projects; and, grant funding for disability pensions.

Table 1: RCMP Spending Authorities and Lapses, 2016-2020.

Source: RCMP Financial Structure & Federal Policing Financials, Presentation to the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians. December 2, 2022.

127. The same pattern has occurred in the Federal Policing program (see table 2). The budget for Federal Policing (‘authorities’) has remained relatively stable over the past five years. During that period, it has lapsed very few resources and, in many cases, those could not be reallocated because they were found in Special Purpose Allotments or disability pensions (as noted above, a statutory benefit). For example, the lapse of $111 million in 2018/19 was comprised of unspent funds for providing security to the G7 meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec ($77 million) and peacekeeping operations ($17 million).

Table 2: Federal Policing Spending Authorities and Lapses, 2016-2020

Source: GRC, « Structure financière de la GRC et finances de la Police fédérale », présentation au Comité des parlementaires sur la sécurité nationale et le renseignement, 2 décembre 2022.

128. That said, two issues are worth noting. First, the full costs of RCMP Contract Policing are not reflected in the Police Service Agreements. This is not a new issue. In 1992, the Auditor General found that the RCMP was spending an additional $100 million per year to support its obligations under the Police Service Agreements. ^{Footnote 221} In its 2017 assessment of the RCMP, KPMG calculated that the RCMP was spending $668 million in federal funds to fulfill Contract Policing requirements. This spending is not a direct transfer, but rather additional indirect costs for program areas, such as recruiting, training and information management, that support RCMP Contract Policing. Nonetheless, it means resources are not available in other parts of the RCMP, including Federal Policing. As KPMG noted,

Notwithstanding specific pressures, the overall impact of the capacity challenges has largely been a shift of the level of effort from serious and organized crime and financial crimes to focus on high-risk national security threats and protective services. Notwithstanding this, Canadian crime rates have been declining since 2012 while the RCMP contract presence has continued to grow across Canada. ^{Footnote 222}

129. Second, the RCMP's ability to manage its Federal Policing budget has only been possible through the decline in the number of police officers in the program over the same period. Over the eight-year period between 2014-15 and 2021-22, Federal Policing has seen its number of full time employees decline by 485 personnel, most of whom were police officers (this issue is discussed further in paragraphs 135 and 138). The funds associated with these vacancies have been used to maintain investigations and activities in the Federal Policing mandate. As RCMP officials noted in a briefing to the Committee, if the Federal Policing program filled all of its vacancies, it would exceed its budget by at least $50-80 Million. ^{Footnote 223}

Human Resources

130. As of April 1, 2022, the RCMP had approximately 30,000 personnel. The majority of these are Regular Members (approximately 19,580 employees, or 63% of all employees). Contract Policing accounts for approximately 2/3 of the RCMP (approximately 18,400 employees, of all categories), with the remainder distributed among the three other areas: Federal Policing, Specialized Policing Services and Internal Services.

131. The RCMP's model of training and recruitment is oriented towards its Contract Policing obligations under the Police Service Agreements. To fulfill these obligations, the RCMP follows a generalist recruitment and training model capable of producing front line police officers.

132. All police officer recruits to the RCMP must meet a list of qualifications and standards. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident, be proficient in English or French, possess a valid drivers’ license, possess a Canadian high school diploma or equivalent, and meet RCMP standards for health, psychological well-being, vision, hearing and fitness. Applicants must also be willing to carry and use a firearm or any other necessary physical force, attend the RCMP's training academy, relocate anywhere within Canada, work shifts and conform to certain standards, such as dress and comportment. ^{Footnote 224}

133. On joining the RCMP, Regular Members complete six and a half months of training at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Academy, or Depot, in Saskatchewan. Depot's curriculum is oriented almost entirely to support general duty policing and only summarily discusses the Federal mandate. At Depot, recruits learn foundational policing skills, including:

• 428 hours of Applied Police Sciences, including arrest and investigative procedures, communication skills, and knowledge of relevant legislation, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Criminal Code;
• 104 hours of Firearm training;
• 94 hours of Police Defensive Tactics;
• 67 hours of Police Driving;
• 45 hours of Operation Conditioning, or physical fitness;
• 38 hours of Drill and Deportment, including marching and equipment care;
• 41 hours in other areas, such as exams; and
• 6 hours on the RCMP's federal mandate, including federal priorities, federal statutes, and issues of organized crime and the role of intelligence. ^{Footnote 225}

134. The RCMP has struggled in recent years to recruit and train sufficient numbers of police officers. This is due to a number of factors, including a tight labour market and changing job expectations (e.g., fewer people are willing to accept mobility requirements). Nonetheless, the RCMP has managed to cumulatively increase its recruitment of Regular Members by approximately 350 individuals, most of whom were used to fill resource gaps in contract jurisdictions. ^{Footnote 226} Changes in the RCMP's number of full-time equivalents, separated by employee classification, are depicted in table 3.

Table 3: RCMP Full-Time Equivalents

Source: RCMP, Response to Committee Questions, August 29, 2022.

135. By contrast, Federal Policing is facing a shrinking recruitment pool. Over the last nine years, Federal Policing has seen a cumulative decline of almost 600 Regular Member positions,227 despite having received funding for an additional 500 positions over the same period. ^{Footnote 228} In 2018, Public Safety Canada noted that the RCMP was unable to fulfill its Federal Policing mandate due to its obligations under the Police Services Agreements. It observed that Federal Policing was operating at a 9.4% vacancy rate, compared to a 3.7% vacancy rate in Contract Policing (at the time, Federal Policing represented 23% of the RCMP's total funded Regular Member positions, but accounted for approximately 40% of the RCMP's overall vacancies). ^{Footnote 229} In the 2022-23 Fiscal Year, Federal Policing was operating at a 13% vacancy rate for its Regular Members. ^{Footnote 230} Changes in Federal Policing personnel are depicted in table 4.

Table 4: Federal Policing Full-time Equivalents

Source: RCMP, Response to Committee Questions, August 29, 2022.

136. The reason for this gap is two-fold. First, the Police Services Agreements with the provinces and territories legally require the RCMP to maintain (or increase upon request) staffing in contract jurisdictions, regardless of its other priorities. As a consequence, the RCMP's contract obligations take priority when filling personnel gaps. Second, the Federal Policing recruitment model has, until recently, been entirely dependent on the broad recruitment strategies, policies, and campaigns of the RCMP writ large. This has limited Federal Policing’s ability to separately recruiting individuals with advanced education or specialized skill sets, particularly in the areas of cyber and financial crime. Federal Policing has been unable to recruit sufficient numbers of officers with the requisite experience and skills to keep up with the demand as Regular Members retire. The Committee turns to the issue of recruiting for Federal policing next.