Public Safety Committee on June 21st, 2011

[Patricia Hassard]

We do an assessment of a candidate's capacities in many ways. There is a variety of tools that we have available to us. The search firm will do an extensive campaign right across the country looking for candidates who would meet the selection criteria. They will do pre-interviews and then present an initial report to the selection committee. The selection committee's role, at that point, is to review what we call the “long list of candidates” and narrow it down to the top few whom the committee feels are closest to the selection criteria, and they would be invited for interviews by the selection committee.

Of course, interviews are not the only way that people are assessed, but they are a good way to assess how people present, what their issues are, and we will be developing questions that will get at some of those issues the honourable member has raised.

We also do extensive reference checking after interviews for the leading candidates.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thanks very much.

Thank you, Mr. Chicoine. Your time is up.

We'll go to Mr. Aspin.

[Jay Aspin, Conservative, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you to the witnesses for appearing today.

At the outset, I am really pleased that one of my predecessors, the Honourable J.J. Blais, a former member for Nipissing—Timiskaming and a good Liberal, is a member of the committee. He is a very learned individual and a very fair individual.

My question to the witnesses is this. What characteristics would you recommend an executive possess in order to build a positive and respected public image of this particular institution?

[Patricia Hassard]

Thank you for the question.

The selection committee is interested in finding a leader for the RCMP who is very capable of communicating with all different types of audiences. That is one of the key characteristics. And you will see, under the “Abilities” heading, that we're looking for:

Superior communication skills, both written and oral, and ability to represent the RCMP with members, the public, governments and other organizations, including law enforcement organizations in Canada and internationally.

I believe that particular criterion was added so that the individual who leads the RCMP is able to put the force in a position of being a trusted institution.

[Jay Aspin, Conservative, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you.

You have a few more minutes if someone wants to question on your time.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

I have just a very quick comment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

I should just interrupt for one moment. They are scheduled to be here for one hour, so this will be the last question, and then we'll move in camera and have a discussion among our committee members.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Thank you. I will just take a brief moment.

I do find it interesting to hear the NDP speaking up on behalf of victims. It's unfortunate that every time they have the opportunity to vote in support of victims, they vote against that legislation.

This actually brings me to my question. There are several references to the RCMP mandate: “to fulfill its mandate and attain its objectives”; and “corporate objectives”. There are many references to the RCMP's overall mandate. I would say that this would include standing up for victims. Obviously, when you're enforcing laws, you're protecting law-abiding Canadians and you're protecting victims. Front-line police officers tell us that the best way to protect victims is to make sure that criminals are in jail and that they stay in jail. Certainly, the criteria talk about achieving the RCMP's mandate, but for all of us, one of the ways we can help do that is to make sure that criminals and violent offenders stay in jail. So it's great that the NDP will be standing up for victims.

Am I correct in assuming that the mandate includes victims' rights and standing up for victims?

[Patricia Hassard]

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

I think I made the point earlier that the selection committee worked hard to shorten the selection criteria and sharpen them, which means that some of the detail has been left out from the previous version. But in the end, I think what you want is to put the key characteristics in your selection criteria and perhaps ask questions about other aspects of the mandate in the interviews.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

I want to thank both of you for coming and helping us understand a little bit better the criteria the selection committee will be looking at.

We are going to now meet and discuss this as a committee. We're going to move in camera, so we would ask each one to exit.

Each member is allowed to have one assistant there.

Thank you very much for attending, Mr. Flack and Ms. Hassard. Thank you.

We will suspend for about three or four minutes to allow them to exit. If you guys want to grab some lunch, there is lunch available there.

[Proceedings continue in camera]