Well, then, Mr. Chair, I will continue.
Like many places in the country, Yukon is now working under a new police services agreement. As you know, there is a new 20-year agreement in place. These changes come at a very opportune time. In fact, during the negotiation for the new agreements we now have, the need for reforms about many of the things contained in Bill C-42, including public complains and internal disciplinary systems of the RCMP, were raised by the Yukon government and other contract partners. Certainly in terms of the discussions we had with our colleagues at Public Safety Canada, we anticipated that the RCMP's legislative regime would be changed. That was our understanding, so we are happy to see that come. We're also aware of the Reform Implementation Council's work and their recommendations made in that regard.
We certainly support the concept that it's difficult for an organization, much less a police organization, to change and move forward into the 21st century with archaic legislation. That's another reason we are supportive of the changes. As I mentioned a moment ago, Mr. Chair, Yukon had conducted extensive public consultations in 2010 on policing as part of the policing review. That policing review was instituted as a result of an in-custody death in police cells of a gentleman named Raymond Silverfox in 2008. That led to the RCMP, the Yukon government, and the Council of Yukon First Nations to collaborate on an extensive policing review, resulting in the report called “Sharing Common Ground” two years ago.
During the course of that review, we heard from members of the public about the internal discipline system and what they felt was a baffling and very opaque system, a system they generally found to be remote and inaccessible. This is what we heard from Yukoners with respect to the complaint process. It was also a system that did not seem to be tuned in to the cultural sensitivity and realities of policing in a northern remote area of Canada.
Many of the 33 recommendations, Mr. Chair, that are found in the “Sharing Common Ground” report relate to the very changes being made in Bill C-42, such as the internal disciplinary system and the public complaints system. As I mentioned, we are supportive of the changes because the Yukon public asked us to make changes, and we know the changes fall within federal jurisdiction. You would certainly hope that the new civilian review and complains commission will shore up what is seen as a gap in terms of complaints and by complainants with the system.
Here in Yukon, we ventured into arrangements with Alberta to establish a regime for the investigation of serious incidents involving RCMP members, utilizing Alberta's serious incident response team—ASIRT, as it is called. Certainly Bill C-42 is in sync with that, providing independent investigations for serious incidents and changing the policy into legislation.
Finally, Mr. Chair, I would say that the implementation of these legislative changes, we hope, will strengthen the partnership that we have as a contract partner with the RCMP and that the actual practice on the ground will be mirrored by the very good intentions that are set out in Bill C-42.
Those are my opening remarks. Thank you.