Evidence of meeting #52 for Public Safety and National Security in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was rcmp.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chair, Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee
We have the unique....
October 17th, 2012 / 5:10 p.m.
Executive Director and Senior Counsel, Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee
Five.
Chair, Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee
Yes, five. Our total agency is five full-time people, and that is in addition to me as CEO and the only decision-maker.
Conservative
Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB
At the risk of asking an obvious question, how many more people would you need?
Chair, Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee
In recent years it has happened that our caseload has exceeded our resource capacities.
Conservative
Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB
Those are all the questions I had.
Does Mr. Norlock have anything to add?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
You would have 30 seconds. If you want to come back, we'll have time to come back.
Mr. Rousseau, you have five minutes.
NDP
Jean Rousseau NDP Compton—Stanstead, QC
Thank you very much for being here, Ms. Ebbs and Mr. Paradiso.
You obviously serve as an arbitration tribunal for grievances, given that you make recommendations on disciplinary measures. Under the bill, disciplinary measures could be determined at the source, by the commissioner, since he will have staffing, management and dispute resolution authority, especially as regards harassment.
How will your recommendations hold sway with the commissioner, particularly since he will always have the arbitrary power to take action? How will your agency fit in with the commissioner's new powers?
Chair, Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee
Under the current process, our external review is part of the appeal process. So some cases are settled at the first level, and we don't get the opportunity to conduct an external review in those cases.
However, our influence extends beyond our intervention in each specific case. Every time we make a determination or recommendation in a given case, a summary of that case is posted on our Web site. Our Web site provides case summaries for the past 25 years, and we know that RCMP members, managers and decision makers consult those summaries regularly, not to mention the general public.
We are extremely proud of our ability to influence the labour relations regime in that regard.
NDP
Jean Rousseau NDP Compton—Stanstead, QC
Very well.
Speaking of labour relations, there are 30 cases a year for nearly 25,000 members. Is there a conspiracy to keep people quiet? That doesn't seem like very many cases to me. I get the sense that the new regime could further increase the number of complaints you receive.
I am having some trouble understanding how you intervene and what you do specifically to defend members, at that level.
Chair, Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee
First of all, I have to say that it is not the committee's job to defend members, since we are a neutral agency.
Chair, Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee
That is a key part of our role.
It is a fact that the majority of labour relations disputes are settled at the first level, and that has long been the case. However, we do not have all the information on how those disputes are settled at that level.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Thank you, Mr. Rousseau.
We'll move back to Mr. Norlock, please.
Oh, I'm sorry, you're doing a split.
Mr. Sandhu, you do get to shift into another gear here.
NDP
Chair, Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee
In the work that we do on grievances, we sometimes do examinations of harassment incidents. In my experience, I have not done a lot of reviews on sexual harassment grievances.
NDP
Jasbir Sandhu NDP Surrey North, BC
Are the recommendations you make case specific, or are there any recommendations that you make outside of that?
Where you may see trends emerging in different areas, do you make those kinds of recommendations to the commissioner?
Chair, Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee
Our recommendations are primarily focused on the case, but we do have situations where we have added recommendations for the commissioner.
As an example, where we are dealing with a policy that we feel is not clear, we would recommend that he order a review of that policy to see if it can be changed or made more clear. That would be an example.
NDP
Jasbir Sandhu NDP Surrey North, BC
Have you made recommendations with regard to a sexual harassment policy?
NDP
Jasbir Sandhu NDP Surrey North, BC
Will the faster dismissal of individual members curb this problem of sexual harassment?
Chair, Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee
Faster dismissal?