As Deputy Minister Tupper alluded to, one of the challenges in the last couple of years has been the labour market, although we're seeing significant change, so we do anticipate a much more positive outlook as we look at 2024 and beyond.
It's no secret that, across the country, the RCMP has been dealing with recruitment and vacancy issues in all areas: provincial policing, municipal policing, federal policing and specialized policing. We currently sit at a national rate of about 15% vacancy. However, I can tell you that this has been one of Commissioner Duheme's national priorities. Hence, to assist with this, we've actually recently created a senior leadership role that is solely focused on national recruiting, on onboarding and on making our process much more seamless, a much more proactive base, attracting...from coast to coast to coast and with a significant lens around reflecting the communities we serve. We're seeing significant change in our recruiting numbers. Although we are losing more through attrition than we are actually recruiting right now—largely based on the fact that we did lose...that depot was closed for a period of time throughout the pandemic—and are playing catch-up, I'm pleased to announce that this year we anticipate 40 full troops of 32 regular members. We anticipate, in the next fiscal year, to increase that to 50 troops, and of course, we're exploring other, different ways of bringing direct-entry members into our organization, experienced police officers.
From an indigenous perspective, though, one of the challenges that we're dealing with, obviously, is the fact that we do have some remote areas, so we're looking at different opportunities, different servicing models, to support those communities. We're also proud to announce that this is the 30th year of our indigenous pre-cadet process, where we welcome indigenous young persons in our organization to get an understanding of what depot looks like, what training looks like. We've also added this year, the first-ever in a long time, indigenous troops, so 32 indigenous members of the RCMP participating in a complete troop, and we hope to continue to advance that. We've launched a recruiting strategy that is focused around indigenous....
Assistant Commissioner Brown, I'll turn to you for some of the other challenges around things other than just remoteness.