Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon to the committee. I want to thank you for the invitation to present today. My name is Brian Sauvé. I was recently elected and confirmed as the president of the National Police Federation, representing almost 20,000 members of the RCMP across the country. With me today is vice-president Peter Merrifield, as well as two other vice-presidents sitting in the gallery, Michelle Boutin and Dennis Miller.
I provided copies of the speaking notes to the clerk, as well as a short presentation that I'll refer to. First, I want to give you a bit of history on the RCMP, and then we'll get into what the NPF is all about.
This past weekend we celebrated our 100th anniversary as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. For those who don't know, in 1920 the Royal North West Mounted Police merged and assimilated the Dominion Police, forming what you have today, which is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Effectively we've had this name for 100 years. We're approaching our 150th anniversary in 2023 because the North West Mounted Police was founded in 1873.
Many Canadians will know the RCMP from their presence here on Parliament Hill or the storied musical ride. Our responsibility is to enforce all federal statutes in Canada including national security and organized and commercial crime. However, in addition to those high-priority mandates the RCMP also provides contract police services in over 150 communities across Canada. We have over 929 work sites, both domestic and international.
Many of those communities are remote and isolated. For example, from Grise Fiord, Nunavut, all the way to Surrey, British Columbia, to Gander, Newfoundland, to Red Deer, Alberta. When all those residents dial 911, we show up. We are the police jurisdiction and they expect someone to treat them with courtesy and respect, as well as to investigate their crimes and solve their issues.
Here's a little about the National Police Federation. For those of you who don't know, that coming up on its150-year history, the RCMP membership was unable to organize and certify a bargaining agent. We are the first one ever. We made history in 2017 by filing the first application for certification. The Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board certified the NPF in July last year as the first-ever bargaining agent for all 19,000 police officers across the country. Overnight the NPF became the largest voice of organized police labour in Canada, the second-largest voice of organized police labour in North America, and most probably, close to the fifth- or the sixth-largest one in the world.
We're a fairly large body now and we're still learning as we go. We're keeping our voices respectful and professional. We're solutions-based. For now the membership of the RCMP has a voice to speak out about all the trials and tribulations, successes and pitfalls, we have encountered through our 147-year history. The primary focus of the NPF is to ensure RCMP members are properly compensated, resourced, supported and trained to maximize public and police officer safety.
We are entering into collective bargaining on contract issues with Treasury Board later this winter. However, that's not the reason I'm here today. It's an introduction to who we are, but I do want to cut to one case that is specific to the budget and this committee. The RCMP is drastically underfunded and under-resourced. The deck I provided on page 3 shows a cross-section of British Columbia. I could do every province but it would be a very long presentation. That data is from 2016. It shows you that the RCMP, in every community we police in British Columbia, offers fewer police officers per population than comparative municipalities.
Our Mounties are extremely efficient, and I would put a Mountie up against a munie any day. However, I would suggest to you that a reasonable person would assume that we are stretching them beyond their capabilities. If we're going to talk about priorities of happy, healthy work-life balance, mental resilience, mental health in the workplace for our first responders, they cannot be as overworked as our membership. They are continually at risk of burnout. You will see provinces across this country making legislation for post-traumatic stress related to our first responders' jobs that is directly linked to that exposure. We can train them to be resilient, but we also need them to have time off to decompress.
In order to improve that resiliency and to provide a healthier work-life balance, which can only lead to improved service delivery and a safer Canadian public, the RCMP needs more police officers. I can't bargain that with the employer. This committee can recommend to the minister to improve the funding for the RCMP and increase that funding for the number of cadets who go through Depot in Regina.
Although dated, a 2010 white paper was written by the Senate entitled “Toward a Red Serge Revival”. It speaks specifically to the human resource crisis the RCMP was facing in 2010, and one of the recommendations was that we hire an additional 5,000 to 7,000 police officers to address that crisis with our increasing mandate and the demands placed on us in 2010. We are now 10 years further down the road, and I would suggest to you that if that report were written today, similar conclusions and recommendations would be made.
Respectfully, we need to act. The RCMP is in need of additional funding to increase its ability to recruit and train more police officers to provide those members working day in and day out the ability to enjoy a healthy work-life balance, remain healthy and maintain public safety in the communities they police. I know it's a little odd to have a labour group come and ask for funding for its employer, but that's where we're at.
I thank you for your time. I appreciate the invitation, and we're open to questions.