Thank you for the concern.
Certainly, across the nation—not just within the RCMP—all police services have been facing a challenging time when we look at our current climate. In particular, the loss through recent on-duty deaths magnifies that. In short, recruitment in policing is not simply a national issue, it's a global issue. Through the experience of working with the International Association of Chiefs of Police, I can tell you that globally all police units are having a similar discussion.
Commissioner Duheme is very committed to recruitment and working with all of our stakeholders. We are actually proactively right now launching a significant review and modernization of our recruitment process. Many of those processes are in place.
We are working, for example, with the National Police Federation on how we enhance trust and confidence. One of those key pieces is in public complaint processes. Ensuring that people are satisfied with the institution of policing is also a key pillar. When we get these types of processes correct, we also build trust and confidence.
We believe that we're seeing light at the end of the tunnel around recruitment. We believe there are opportunities to engage all Canadians. We've made changes to permanent residence. We've made changes to diversifying our workforce. We see a number of strategies. We have seen a slow uptick in recruiting processes. However, this year we're likely to move about 800 individuals through RCMP Depot. That, again, will meet existing standards.
When we look at the demographics of our workforce, we're seeing attrition and enhanced retirements. There are challenges for the organization.
Recruitment is one of the key pillars for Commissioner Duheme. In fact, right now it's the number one priority to fill vacancies across our country and deal with releasability and mobility issues across.... We are a national police service and in fact a global police service where we have numbers deployed. It is a cause for concern, but I would say that all police leaders share in that cause for concern, not just the RCMP.