The second area on which I want to touch base with you is one that I think troubles all the members of this committee. It's some of the civilian employees who are employed in the RCMP. Quite frankly, I think some of the conduct of some of these individuals bordered on the outrageous.
I thought my knowledge of law would say you had plenty of grounds to terminate immediately for cause with some of these individuals. We're told by everyone, from former Commissioner Zaccardelli to other people, that because of the collective agreements and labour regime that are in place and so on, you can't really do that anymore. You give people pay for two years to sit at home and collect their pensions and build up their benefits or get transferred to some other branch of the government. Apparently they're even recommended to other branches of the government, and so on, and they pop up somewhere else.
I find this very disconcerting. I would think, for the whistle-blowers in the RCMP, this would be extremely frustrating. They're demoted, they're transferred for doing the right thing, and the real culprits in many cases are people who are paying, really, no penalties whatsoever because of arguments about collective agreements and so on.
Is the task force going to look at this problem and try to come to grips with it to see what can be done?