With respect to your first question on the expansion of the auxiliary constable program, we're certainly always looking within our communities for interest in that program, and in expanding that program where it makes sense. The costs are minimal. Certainly there are some training aspects that need to be considered and coordinated, but we are always looking to expand that program.
With a $2,600 cost for outfitting an auxiliary, it's not a significant consideration in terms of the expansion of that program. We're always looking for those opportunities, and we do so. It's a challenge because there is a minimum requirement of hours that an auxiliary has to work, as I mentioned it's between 100 and 192 hours a year, so that's in essence one eight-hour shift and in some provinces two shifts a month. So at times it's a challenge to find people, but we do look for expansion opportunities.
As far as working with peacekeepers—a variety of security agencies, band constable programs—is concerned there are a number of different entities that are in existence that we work with and collaborate with, with respect to the safety of remote communities. The challenge is the same. With our auxiliary constable program everything they do is very well supervised because we don't want to expose our volunteers to any undue risk. We're ultimately responsible for them and when they hop into our police vehicle for a shift, we're mindful of the fact that they don't have the same intervention tools that we have. They have some basic training and we're mindful of what we expose them to.
On a routine shift, a constable working the beat who has a call to attend to a domestic violence complaint would not likely take an auxiliary constable. The auxiliary constable would be dropped off at the detachment.
That said, if the constable has a talk he or she would like to do at a school, or as you mentioned there is a parade that requires some participation and the constable is tied up with a number of other things, the auxiliary constable enhances the service that we provide in communities by attending to some of those functions that we might not ever have the opportunity to attend, just because of our reactive responsibilities and our core policing responsibilities.