That's an important question, because this is a new element, and it responds to a number of key recommendations, including from Justice O'Connor in his report a few years ago. It takes the level of review of the RCMP to a whole new level.
Essentially what it does is give pretty broad discretion, recognizing the first two points you mentioned that limit that to some degree. But I would argue that the scope and the range of activities they can look at are as broad as everything the RCMP does with respect to their mandate under the RCMP Act, the Witness Protection Program Act, and so on.
Let me speak specifically to the first two points you raised. First, conducting this review will not unduly diminish their ability to review and process public complaints. What that is basically saying is that your core business is public complaints. You need to keep processing those public complaints.
The policy reviews are something you will need to do in the context of your budget. However, what the government has done, in this case, is increase the budget of the agency. You had a base budget in the last several years of $5.4 million annually. It has been increased by $5 million to $10.4 million annually. Now, I should caveat that by saying that they got an increase from Treasury Board over the last few years of about $3 million. Really it's about $2 million more a year, and a big reason for that additional $2 million per year is to conduct these policy reviews. There will be resources available for the policy reviews right from the beginning to allow the agency to do that.
In terms of other review bodies looking at it, it's just a question of efficiency. If you already have another body looking at a matter, you probably don't want someone duplicating that process. That's not to say that the other review body might complete its process and there might still be outstanding questions or other matters this body may feel it appropriate to look at. They may choose to do that at that time.
These are constraints only in the sense that the chair of this new body has to inform the minister. It's not the case that the minister is going to say, “No, I don't want you to do that.” This is an independent body, and the chair will conduct those policy reviews. There is no capability for the minister to say, “I do not want you to conduct review X.” The body will conduct the review.