Evidence of meeting #5 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was economy.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you both.
Next is Mr. Fragiskatos, and then we'll go over to Mr. Ste-Marie.
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses.
Mr. Sauvé, I am looking at your brief. “Provide more funding for Depot to increase new members” is one thing you are asking for.
Why do you want the funding to go to Depot?
President, National Police Federation
Depot is the only place we train police officers.
Liberal
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
Okay.
When was the last time you saw funding for this purpose?
President, National Police Federation
It's a little odd to have a labour group asking for an employer's increase in funding. However, I can tell you what—
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
I still think it's a legitimate question, just for context here.
President, National Police Federation
It is a legitimate question. I can tell you that right now the plan is to put 40 troops through Depot per year. They've been doing that for about three years. However, Depot is only funded for 18. Our contracting partners in the divisions that have us as police of jurisdiction are actually “at risking” out, through their budgets, the funding for the other 22.
This is kind of where, if you had some guaranteed funding for Depot, we would have a plan in place to increase the number of cadets being able to go through. That 1,200 number of members going through every year has been the case for the last three years. The plan is to continue it for another three years. That will not fill the gap.
Let's start this way. We have 1,200 who go to Depot, and about 1,000 graduate. That's about a 20% failure rate. Our attrition is almost at 850, so we're gaining 150 members per year, which is not even filling the gaps.
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
Okay.
You are talking to MPs here, not to the government. Is that right?
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
It's an open forum.
I do note on your briefing paper that a white paper was submitted in 2010 to the Senate, called “Toward a Red Serge Revival”, talking about the human resource crisis that the RCMP faces. This white paper goes back, as I said, to 2010, so you've been asking for this for some time, not just under one government but under different governments.
You alluded to this in your remarks, and this is my last question, because I want to go to Mr. Davis. Tell us about not just the physical challenges your members are facing but the mental health challenges that are at play.
February 5th, 2020 / 4:30 p.m.
President, National Police Federation
Just to clarify, we didn't submit that white paper.
President, National Police Federation
It was written and researched by the Senate.
President, National Police Federation
Former senators Colin Kenny, Thomas Banks—
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
Yes, it was the white paper by the Senate. I apologize.
President, National Police Federation
Just to be clear, it wasn't me. We didn't write it. It's way too deep for me.
Peter Merrifield Vice-President, National Police Federation
It was a sober-second-thought document.
President, National Police Federation
Mental health is a lively topic today in the first responder community: fire, police, paramedics, even the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces. It has been for a number of years. Suicide rates are through the roof. The RCMP has addressed this and tried to go down a mental health strategy approach by reducing stigma. Part of that has been resilience training. The road to mental readiness program is a Canadian Mental Health Association course we've implemented and developed for policing, and it's gone down the road. That's fantastic. We can train our members to be resilient for what they see in the field. Where that resilience wanes and where it fades is when you're overworked and you cannot get well rested to be resilient. That's where we're seeing challenges in the field.
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
Thank you, Mr. Sauvé. I wish we had more time. Unfortunately, we are limited in that way.
Mr. Davis, you have a number of recommendations, but one of the key ones is research and the need for accelerating that. First of all, it's my understanding that quite a lot has happened over the past 20 years or so on treatment. It's very different now than it was 20 years ago. Regarding the need for basic research, obviously this government has made historic investments in that.
Do you have an idea how of how much of that basic research that's happening across Canada is being focused on MS?
Benjamin Davis
To your opening comment, yes, there's been remarkable progress in the MS space over the last 25 years. If you were diagnosed 25 to 30 years ago, you were told to go home and good luck. Now there are a number of options available, and that's wonderful. Some have said to me that this progress is second only to the progress that's been made in the HIV community. That said, there is a tremendous amount of opportunity to continue to fund basic research. MS is such a complex disease, and because we do not yet understand what causes MS and we do not have a cure, we need to continue to invest in that community. Investments in research are important. Research is expensive; it takes time. We need to continue to fuel what is some of the leading research in the world that happens here in Canada.