I think the first question was maybe a concern about reading the annual report and seeing it referring only to RCMP officers, and that's true. That is the report that was issued by the Minister of Public Safety in respect of the RCMP. That is the minister responsible.
I would like to clarify that the law enforcement justification is available to other law enforcement officers across Canada, not just the RCMP. In fact, there have been designations of other law enforcement officers.
You brought up the specific example of joint forces operations. That would be an example of where the RCMP may be working with others. I would leave them to go into any details of this, but they often do work with other police forces if they are engaged in the complex sort of investigations to which you are referring. This is perhaps not a tool so much for the ordinary police officer on the street to use in just an ordinary patrol; it is for the complex investigations, ones that receive extensive pre-authorization, and concerning other police forces, you would see in other annual reports issued by ministers of public safety or solicitors general across Canada reference to their police officers and what has been done.
I think the last concern you had was what happens if, however, what you might refer to as a general police officer on the street comes across this situation and suddenly needs to be able to take advantage of these provisions. That's a fair question.
The provisions do have a requirement for designation, so an undesignated officer would not beforehand be able to take advantage of these provisions.
There is a provision for emergency designation of such an officer. Such an officer might suddenly find himself, even through an ordinary routine patrol, I suppose, in a situation where he might suddenly have an opportunity to go undercover the next day. I suppose there would be a possibility that he would receive that designation from a senior official without having to go the ministerial route, the ordinary method of designation.
But yes, it is normally a regime that applies for pre-designation of officers who are normally working in those circumstances where they would come across this.