Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members, for inviting us to appear today.
I'm Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation. We're the sole certified bargaining agent representing close to 20,000 members of the RCMP below the rank of inspector.
The past two years have been challenging for everyone, including the RCMP. Our membership, which was already facing human and financial resource challenges, had to deal with an accelerated increase in demand due to COVID-19. These challenges, paired with an increased workload, impacted not only staffing levels but also the well-being of our membership.
When looking at labour shortages among the RCMP, there are several factors that need to be considered: growing demand, the impacts of COVID-19, the recruitment process, the impacts on core policing responsibilities, and identifying the root causes underpinning all these challenges.
Today I'd like to address some of these factors.
First are recruiting challenges. Unfortunately, policing is no longer considered the attractive career it used to be. Police services across North America are seeing a decline in applicants and are facing recruitment challenges.
For perspective, between April and December of 2021, the RCMP received close to 6,300 applications. When looking at the previous fiscal year, the RCMP had received close to 11,800 applications. This shows a decline of almost 47%. In addition, the RCMP is projecting an even further decline in applicants for this coming fiscal year. This trend needs to be researched and addressed to implement possible solutions as soon as possible.
We have negotiated the first collective agreement on behalf of our membership, and we hope that this will make the RCMP a more competitive and attractive employer and assist in attracting new cadets. However, wages and monetary incentives are not the only thing applicants are looking for.
We recommend that the government study RCMP labour shortages, identify why applications are declining, and review the current recruiting process and standards that are set out as well as how to improve the image of policing as a career option.
Second is human resources capacity and related impacts. As the national police service, the RCMP has the ability to move members between units or detachments to fill gaps and respond to emergencies, as identified in the recent Ottawa occupation. This is done through the various provincial police service agreements with the provinces.
However, demand for contract policing continues to rise as populations and police service needs grow within communities. The departmental plan for the RCMP shows that between 2019 and 2025 the number of full-time equivalent positions will only grow 2.5%, while the population in Canada is estimated to grow 6%. This demonstrates a growing concern about pressures on our membership to continue to meet increasing demands with inadequate human resources to do so.
The last impact I'll speak to today is the capacity at the RCMP's training academy at Depot in Regina, Saskatchewan. Looking beyond recruiting and FTE constraints, Depot has a maximum capacity of 2,176 cadets per year. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a training backlog that needs to be addressed in the short term and a strategy implemented for the longer term.
For the 2021-22 fiscal year, Depot onboarded 33 troops at reduced capacity, which will result in about 782 cadets graduating, after attrition. Prior to 2020, Depot averaged 1,050 graduates per year, meaning that between 2019-20 and 2022-23, it anticipated about 4,200 new graduates. However, given the challenges mentioned previously, Depot is now only anticipating to graduate under 3,000 cadets over the same time period, representing a decrease of almost 30%.
We recommend investing close to $190 million to expand training capacity and recruiting efforts for Depot as well as additional funding in subsequent years; developing a three- to four-year strategic plan to increase the number of troops to a maximum of 55 per year; and reviewing and developing a robust recruitment strategy to address future recruiting challenges.
We believe it's imperative that the government address these shortfalls to allow the RCMP to meet current and future demand to keep Canadians safe.
Thank you.
I am subject to any questions.