Hon. Gwen Boniface: Honourable senators, this item is adjourned in the name of Senator Busson, and I ask for leave of the Senate that following my intervention, the balance of her time to speak on this item be reserved.

Senator Boniface: Honourable senators, I rise to speak to the inquiry put forward by Senator Harder with respect to the RCMP, its roles and its mandate.

As some of you know, I had the privilege of serving in the Republic of Ireland in my earlier days and was a part of the establishment of an inspectorate to oversee reform and modernization of the national police service there. Particularly, we looked at the structure, mandate, roles and responsibilities. It is from that perspective that I speak with respect to the RCMP.

The Garda, as they are known in Ireland, serve local, regional, national and international mandates on behalf of the republic and its 3.5 million people. What I learned working there, and which I think applies very much to Canada, is the history of policing is the history of a country. For Canada, I think the RCMP is very similar. At the core, problems within the RCMP are inherently structural. One hundred and fifty years later, it is time to design a fit-for-purpose police service.

The RCMP serves 8 provinces, 3 territories and 150 municipalities — some as large as a million people — and vast swaths of rural and northern communities. They police in hundreds of First Nations and Inuit communities. But I think what is most important is the role of federal policing because that is what keeps our country safe. They deal with national and international organized crime, cybercrime, major fraud, human trafficking, drug smuggling, anti-terrorism and other broad-based threats to safety and security that are national in nature and impact all of us.

Looked at globally, policing is a vast mandate that is largely unchanged from a century ago. It is a jumble of accountabilities and responsibilities, which inevitably lead to confusion rather than clarity. This is the difficulty, of course, on the federation of which our country is built, but it is also the foundation on which the RCMP was built, and, in turn, where they have developed.

For the RCMP, I believe that we have a structural impediment to policing in Canada, an organizational structure that is failing both them and the citizens, despite individual and collective efforts. As Canadians, we need to give our national federal police service the funding and resources that they need to face the challenges of tomorrow. Technology has completely changed in the world, but I can assure you, it has especially changed in the world of crime and crime-fighting.

This was reinforced in the Brown Task Force from 2007, more than 15 years ago. This report argued that:

. . . the RCMP’s approach to governance is based on a model and style of policing developed from and for another policing era.

Neither incremental change nor reforms led from within are going to make the RCMP the police force that times demand. It is structural change. That mandate change has to be led by government — it is not led internally — and successive governments have failed to take that initiative.

We need to ask ourselves a number of questions in this inquiry. Should a modern federal police service be a contract supplier of police services to 8 provinces, 3 territories, 150 municipalities and hundreds of rural communities and First Nations? I would argue that we would have to have a very clear picture of what we want as an outcome before you could move in that direction. It would also require legislation and cooperation of our provinces to mandate, as they have responsibility for policing. As we know from watching the changeover in policing in the City of Surrey, this can be a complicated, chaotic mess.

Two thirds of all RCMP personnel are in contract policing. Kevin Lynch, in a report that he provided recently, said:

. . . the real obstacles to getting out of contract policing are largely political, at both the federal and provincial levels, not operational—they are a function of history, culture and inertia.

I would firmly argue that they are also part of political indifference. The result is that Canada’s efforts in the critically important areas of federal policing are not adequately resourced, and this can pose a threat to public safety across Canada.

You and I know that we are living in complicated times. The RCMP has to create a modern culture and clear leadership values, which will have to be supported by recruitment, training and development. Training needs to be built to meet that fit-for-purpose organization.

Canada must as well move to a new Indigenous policing model. Ontario has been well advanced on this since the early 1990s, when the first five-year tripartite agreement was signed. I had the privilege of being present for that signing, and have closely watched First Nation police services develop and grow across the province. They have established themselves very well.

Uniformed RCMP constables in Indigenous communities are often seen as representative of the colonial past. This should not continue. It is the right way to go to ensure proper accountability for policing First Nation communities — to undergo a First Nation policing model for them.

The government must adequately resource the fit-for-purpose RCMP so that it can be a sophisticated and effective police service with a well-defined mandate. These proposed structural changes and any associated transitional measures will not be cheap, but it is necessary. Inaction will only exacerbate the problems, something that should be a very unappealing prospect for any future government of any party.

The process of reform is difficult. We need a broad public understanding of its purpose, and structural reform will particularly need to be based on consultation with stakeholders, including the provinces, the municipalities and the public.

Canada has long tended to underfund its obligations in the areas of policing, intelligence and security. With that failure comes risks and consequences that are only too apparent in the RCMP today. We will need a more effective governance framework and an appropriately empowered management board to provide effective external oversight and guidance. The current advisory board lacks transparency, clarity of mandate and meaningful oversight.

I am encouraged, however, by the recent appointment of Kent Roach as chair of the advisory committee. Mr. Roach is known to many of us in this chamber for his appearances before the Legal and Defence Committees. I believe he will bring clarity to the role, and help bring needed change.

We must, however, create a clear and clean line with respect to government direction and RCMP operational independence. This must be explored in this review. There is no government that has taken this issue as seriously as they should.

Therefore, I think this chamber sits in a very unique position to undertake this work, and I wholeheartedly support Senator Harder’s proposal. Thank you very much.

Hon. Gwen Boniface: I will be very quick then, Your Honour. Senator Harder, would you agree with me that as you look at provincial-federal responsibilities of the RCMP you may want to start looking at the three provinces that have provincial police services to see how those divisions take place today, particularly in the integrated fashion, and that may be helpful to look at some of the fit-for-purpose issues that you raise? Would you agree with that?

(On motion of Senator Busson, debate adjourned.)

(At 6:03 p.m., the Senate was continued until Tuesday, December 7, 2021, at 2 p.m.)