Task force calls for sweeping change to RCMP structure, management

Jim Bronskill, THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - A federal task force on the RCMP is calling for major changes to the structure, independence and oversight of the national police service.

The task force headed by Toronto lawyer David Brown says the Mounties are mired in bureaucracy and must have more authority to manage their own staff and budget.

"The RCMP is not just another federal department - nor should it be," Brown told a news conference Friday.

"Members of the RCMP have the authority to make life-and-death decisions every day - they fight organized crime, they infiltrate terrorist cells - but they don't have the authority to make simple expenditures or hire a new person without hours of paperwork and process."

Calling the problems facing the force "deep and fundamental," Brown said the first step is making the RCMP a separate entity in the federal realm, meaning it would not have to repeatedly go cap-in-hand to the Treasury Board for money once Parliament had approved its overall budget.

The task force also recommends a new civilian board of management to oversee the organization and administration of the RCMP, and a revamped complaints watchdog with more robust powers.

The management board, accountable to the public safety minister, would be responsible for financial affairs, resources, services, property, personnel and procurement.

A new Independent Commission for Complaints and Oversight of the RCMP would incorporate the functions of existing bodies for public complaints and employee grievances that Brown says now lack authority to compel real action.

Task force members met with more than 2,000 Mounties, seeing a fierce pride in the RCMP and dedication to the people they serve.

"But we also witnessed despair, disillusionment and anger with an organization that is failing them," Brown said.

"With remarkable, but disturbing consistency, we heard of chronic shortages of people and equipment, of overwork and fatigue, of issues of wellness, health and even safety."

The task force discovered RCMP detachments were often understaffed by 25 to 30 per cent.

Its report makes 46 additional recommendations dealing with everything from recruitment and performance evaluations to public relations and ethics.

The hefty volume came the same day the beleaguered Mounties said they would restrict officer use of Tasers after a watchdog report criticized the police force for firing the stun guns too frequently.

However, the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, the report's author, said the "new" policy represented little change at all.

Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died Oct. 14 after he was repeatedly Tasered and pinned to the floor by RCMP officers at Vancouver International Airport. An amateur video of the fatal encounter set off an international uproar.

The task force's findings, compiled over five months, are expected to pave the way for modernization of the troubled RCMP.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said he has written RCMP Commissioner William Elliott asking him to "consider those recommendations that are administrative in nature and can be implemented quickly."

Other, more complex recommendations require further consideration and consultation with the provinces and territories, Day said.

One insider said Day and Toews seemed generally receptive to the task force recommendations when briefed on them.

Elliott, the first civilian appointed to lead the Mounties, said he couldn't comment immediately on the report's specifics. "But I have read enough to know that it is an important document that will serve as one of the key drivers of change going forward."

Major changes, including to the senior leadership, are already in the works, he said.

"Let me be clear. There is simply no other option. The RCMP must change."

The task force report says trust in the management of the RCMP has been shaken in the last few years. "This has had a stunning impact on the members and employees of the RCMP and on the Canadians they serve."

Brown said consultations revealed a picture of an honourable and revered Canadian institution with rank-and-file members struggling to balance the burden of an inefficient and badly structured organization.

The report recommends an implementation council be formed quickly to usher in the suggested changes.

"We want to see the board of management and independent commission fully in place and operating no later than Dec. 31, 2009 - two years from now," Brown said.

Retired staff sergeant Ron Lewis, a whistleblower on scandalous RCMP management practices, said the report sounds like the recipe for change he wanted.

But Lewis cautioned that loosening the RCMP ties to government would give the commissioner even more power.

And he made it clear the proposed new board must be composed of people dedicated to the task, not part-time dilettantes. "The devil's in the details."

Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh applauded the notion of distancing the RCMP from the government of the day through separate status, saying the commissioner must not only be independent, but "seen to be independent."

More public consultation must take place before big changes happen, said New Democrat MP David Christopherson.

"It's the Canadian people that own the RCMP," he said. "They deserve their say, and they haven't had it yet."

© The Canadian Press, 2007