OTTAWA — As the RCMP marks its 150th anniversary, a familiar, nagging question about the storied national police force is resurfacing: Should the Mounties withdraw from small communities across Canada to fully concentrate on big-ticket federal files
The notion of a more focused version of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a sort of "FBI North" that leaves provincial and municipal policing to others, has rarely been far from conversations about the force's mandate and future direction.
With some 19,000 police officers and 11,000 civilian members, the Mounties work in over 700 detachments and provide policing services in more than 600 Indigenous communities. The prime minister has asked Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino to carry out an assessment of contract policing in consultation with provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous partners and other parties.
The recent report of the inquiry into the Nova Scotia shootings said the federal government should commission that external review, ensuring it specifically examines the RCMP's contract policing and work with contract partners, as well as its approach to community relations. Boudreau said the RCMP is spread too thin to police communities effectively, and provinces should follow the lead of Ontario and Quebec and set up their own forces or expand municipal ones into regional services.Sauvé balks at the notion the RCMP does a poor job of front-line policing, citing statistical evidence to the contrary, and he notes the force has come to recognize the importance of officers setting down roots in the places they police.
"We don't talk about the fact that in many communities, the police are the only service that's available 24/7." The approach involves trying to "break down some of the silos" between policing, mental health providers, housing services and education programs, said University of Toronto law professor Kent Roach, who this year became chair of the management advisory board for the RCMP which provides external guidance on modernization and management.
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