As Dr. Powlowski noted, the designation of first nations' policing as an essential service confirms, I think, something that non-indigenous communities have known for a very long time. It's that the ability to rely on professional, accessible, independent policing services is an essential requirement for communities to be safe, for communities to be able to grow and for families to be able to work and live in communities. It should be no less so in indigenous communities.
I learned something from representatives of policing services in northern Ontario, which is so ably represented by Dr. Powlowski.
Imagine if you worked for the Toronto Police Service—or heaven forfend, the RCMP, Bryan Larkin—and you didn't know if you would have a paycheque on April 1 because it's a contribution agreement based on a certain number of fiscal years.
How do you train, recruit and maintain public confidence and the confidence of the officers who serve in these police forces if there isn't long-term, reliable and recurring funding?
The idea is to designate it as an essential service and provide legislative certainty as to the long-term, recurring nature of the funding. It will—I learned this from police chiefs from northern Ontario—be a lot easier for them to recruit and retain the kind of professional officers that they want to serve in their communities. It speaks to the leadership in those communities being able to count on what is in every other community an essential service, as I said.
The idea that it sunsets with a contribution agreement wouldn't make sense in a non-indigenous community. We think it's a long overdue thing that we can correct. We hope we can correct it legislatively.