Evidence of meeting #68 for Public Safety and National Security in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was money.
A video is available from Parliament.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Roxanne James Conservative Scarborough Centre, ON
I would ask for 10 minutes in case anyone needs to visit the bathroom between voting, but I think we should be able to continue going as long as possible.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Daryl Kramp
Would the chair have unanimous consent to move forward and leave 10 minutes at the end?
9:50 a.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Daryl Kramp
Okay. That is done. We will add very close to 20 minutes, I would expect, once the bells go.
That is our first issue.
Now, we can continue with questioning today, and we can deal with committee business near the end of this. The chair will allot five minutes for committee business and leave 15. I throw that out on the floor. I'm asking for a very quick deliberation. If I don't get any sense of it, the chair will make an arbitrary decision, but I'm looking for your input first.
Mr. Garrison.
9:50 a.m.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC
Since we have both the question of voting on the estimates here at the committee and committee business, might I suggest that when the bells sound we move immediately to voting on these and committee business?
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Mr. Chair, there are some important questions to be put to the heads of agencies here, and we really do need an hour with them. If we don't have an hour today, I would suggest that we find another hour somewhere else. We get more answers from officials than we do from the minister. I think it's important we spend as much time as we can with officials.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Daryl Kramp
Your point is taken, and I would certainly have to get a motion to bring witnesses back if that were to be the case, but that would of course come under committee business, so first of all we'd have to get to committee business to discuss that.
Ms. James.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Roxanne James Conservative Scarborough Centre, ON
Given that there's legislation that will be coming to committee, we need to do committee business today. I would suggest that when the bells ring and we go in camera to do the committee business, we actually cover the committee business portion first, and then go to the votes on the main estimates, because those votes can occur, as you said, at any point. They do not necessarily have to be done today.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Daryl Kramp
That's a reasonable suggestion. Are we comfortable with that so that we may move on without delay?
9:50 a.m.
Some hon. members
Yes.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Daryl Kramp
That's fine. Thank you very much. I do appreciate that.
We will now immediately open the floor to rounds with our witnesses while we have them here.
Mr. Falk, you have the floor for five minutes.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for attending committee here this morning.
I'd like to begin my questions with the RCMP commissioner.
Commissioner, we've seen some of the media articles regarding some of the equipment that's offered to some of your members. I know that you commented on it briefly during the time the minister had with us here, but could you also perhaps correct the record for some of the claims made about the equipment that the RCMP is alleged to have been using?
9:55 a.m.
Commr Bob Paulson
Okay. What I was referring to is that there were some discussions in the media. I think they were actors pretending to be police officers, who were speaking from transcripts. I didn't see the show, but they were claiming to bring their own weapons to work. That is not something I'm aware of, and were I to become aware of it or were any of my supervisors or decision-makers to become aware of it, we would act on it, which is not to say that we're not mindful that our members need to be properly equipped to do the job. In that regard, they are, and in that regard, we continue to train them on various techniques that are evolving given the threat Canadians are facing.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
Also, these main estimates do not include the additional resources that were allocated in budget 2015. Could you comment on these additional resources that will be allocated in supplementary estimates (A)?
9:55 a.m.
Commr Bob Paulson
Well, I know that there are this year's.... Well, I cannot, in fact. I'm not in a position to offer you any elucidating info on that. I don't quite understand what you're driving at. I'm sorry.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
One thing that I've noticed on many of the RCMP vehicles is that you're always soliciting for people to consider the RCMP as a source of employment and a career. Can you comment briefly to the committee on whether you have the resources necessary to attract people, to train people, and to retain people?
9:55 a.m.
Commr Bob Paulson
Yes, we do.
The challenge in bringing the resourcing of the RCMP up to snuff, to everybody's sense of snuff, is the idea that pressures are changing all the time, but in terms of balancing the intake to Depot, with the attrition that we forecast in the force balanced against real decisions taken in the contracting jurisdictions about what money is available—not just what hope and desire exist, but what money is being made available to bring people in—then we secure and we ramp up our intake at Depot.
For example, this year I think we're looking at close to 30 troops, projecting attrition and growth within the contracts, so we need to advertise. I know there is money being sought from the government to help us with that. Our training capacity at Depot turns on the number of cadets we're taking in. We also have some employment equity issues to make sure that we're targeting the right people at the right age and in the right areas of our country. All in all, it's a complicated system, but it's functioning.
9:55 a.m.
Commr Bob Paulson
Yes, there are recruits available.
I'll tell you, though, the recruits are available and the labour market availability is strong, and we need to get the right people in the organization, but we're competing with other police forces. While we have no difficulty in bringing in people, neither do other police forces have difficulty in attracting our officers once they're trained. That is getting to be a little bit of an issue.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
Mr. Coulombe, I'd like to direct a question towards you.
Last night we voted on Bill C-51. We passed it in the House and we moved it along to the Senate. You had a chance to speak to the bill here at committee, as did another 48 other witnesses.
We heard from some groups that felt the bill was actually targeting protestors instead of terrorists, that CSIS will become a secret police organization through the information sharing act, and that spying on protesters will happen.
I know that former assistant deputy Ray Boisvert testified at committee and said people shouldn't be so flattered as to think they're going to be targeted by the new measures in the bill. Can you comment a little on that as well just to set the record straight?