I will highlight two areas. One is linked to Public Safety's role and one is linked to the RCMP's role.
This program is a cost-sharing program. The federal government provides 52% of the funding and the provinces or territories bring 48% to the table. What we heard is that if the federal government earmarks more funding to support the policing program, the province or territory needs to bring their fair share too for the additional funding to flow. That is part of the reason why some of the funds are going unspent.
Some of the money was received so that Public Safety could transition or grow and put more communities into the tripartite agreements or transition some from tripartite to self-administered programs. However, we saw no growth, really, in that area. Most of the additional funding was done just to meet the current existing needs and not expand the program. That would be the Public Safety side.
The second side is where the RCMP comes into play. It is not a party to this agreement, but it needs to provide policing services. What we found is that it has been unable to staff many positions. In 2023, 61 of the positions that were supposed to receive funding under this program were vacant. That's a big gap. I should note, however, that it is consistent with a larger staffing gap that the RCMP has to manage.
The interesting interplay here is that the RCMP often provides policing services provincially already. These are over and above those in indigenous communities, so we do see at times that police officers are called to do what I would say are regular provincial policing services versus the real community-focused policing service under the program.