It varies from province to province. As all of our members are aware, policing and the actual provincial legislation fall under provincial governments, so it does vary, but very much so we have national standards. There is a national use-of-force framework that all police services including the federal police service participate in, so I will bring a perspective from Ontario.
The hiring process is governed by the Ministry of Solicitor General. It's administered by police services. Similar to the case in Quebec, we have a provincial college, the Ontario Police College, which is very similar to École Nicolet.
One of the processes, though, is that we do select. We have human resources branches in all of our police services. In Ontario, we have a province-wide constable selection system, so we have a set standard that every police leader and police service has agreed to, which the government has endorsed, which leads to the Ontario Police College basic recruit training program, which, again, is government-sponsored and government-approved, but the selection of the candidates is based on the police service.
They participate in a province-wide system. This year the Ontario chiefs introduced a new system that looks, obviously, at the candidate's values, education and physical fitness, but there is also the administration of a predictive index to look at their success within policing. There's also an evaluation around implicit bias that allows our recruiting divisions and recruiting branches to look at the candidate. That is followed by a series of interviews with a local focus, an essential competency interview, and mandatory psychological testing by approved psychologists from across Canada. There are also financial inquiries, financial checks, as well as a psychological assessment followed by a home visit by police officers to ensure a candidate meets the standards.
That is then followed by a series of approved training that takes them through a 13-week program at the Ontario Police College and that includes a series of different cultural awareness and sensitivity training, etc.
One of the opportunities the Canadian chiefs are looking at is that for a national framework for recruitment, for training and for hiring. If we were able to set national standards right across the nation, we would be hiring police officers who have specific skill sets. We naturally understand that the various regions of our country require different skill sets and different attributes, but the basic work we do is fundamental.
That's the process in Ontario, but something we as an association recommend is to look at a national framework. Previously, there was a lot of work done with the Police Sector Council, which has since ceased to exist.
Our recommendation would be to look at a larger national framework that ensures we select the best candidates to perform a very complex role in a very complex society.