It depends on who the parties are. If the respondent is an RCMP officer, regular member or a civilian member, the RCMP Act has to be considered and applied in terms of the conduct. If it's a public servant who is the respondent, it's generally the Treasury Board policy that applies. If it's between two public servants, it's clear that the Treasury Board policy applies.
That's one of the considerations—who is making the allegation and who is responding to the allegation—in determining which process you are going to be under.
If you are under the RCMP process, I am aware there is dissatisfaction from the public service employee side. There is a view that there should be more active participation and disclosure of certain information as part of that investigative process. That's not presently provided for under our code of conduct investigations for regular and civilian members, and that causes some tension in that regard.
I see quite a few of these in my current capacity. You try to work with the spirit and intent of the Treasury Board policy, which is trying to resolve this in the workplace, but under the statute it says that if it appears there's a contravention of the code of conduct, that's the process you're supposed to be using.
You're trying to balance the rights and interests and responsibilities of the parties involved, but it can become difficult if somebody wants to use a code of conduct and insists that is how it has to happen. It closes the door to dealing with the other complaint more informally.
Now that's not to say there aren't attempts to mediate and resolve issues, but there are these kinds of jurisdictional issues that arise in the investigative process. You can go all the way through the Treasury Board process and not be successful in resolving it, and then you're triggering a code of conduct process. People will say, “Okay, I gave a statement on that. What are you doing with that? Where does that apply? I didn't know you were going to use that here.”
It's a complexity that doesn't have to exist. The rule-making authority that will be granted to the commissioner will allow him to meet the needs of Treasury Board and respectful workplaces that are trying to resolve conflicts, while at the same time making sure there's some rigour in making sure the member's interests are protected and dealt with properly.