Madam Speaker, I rise today to participate in the second reading debate of the budget implementation act.
This week police officers from all across the country converged on Parliament Hill to deliver this year's demands for improving the safety and security of Canadians. They had an important list which included: better protection for children, no more club fed style prisons, a national drug strategy, pension accrual rate for public safety occupations, and funding for police services.
The Canadian Police Association, representing some 30,000 frontline officers, is recommending that Parliament provide increased priority funding for local, provincial, national, federal and trans-jurisdictional policing responsibilities.
Well over a year ago the Canadian Police Association appeared before the justice committee regarding the anti-terrorism legislation. During its presentation it said:
We have serious reservations, however, about the capability of Canada's police and law enforcement officials to meet the increased demands of anti-terrorism requirements and sustain important domestic policing and law enforcement responsibilities.
To date, the government has never meaningfully addressed the Canadian Police Association's concerns.
As the CPA pointed out in its fact sheet, the 2002 federal budget allotted several millions of dollars in new spending for national security. However, only $576 million spread over six years was dedicated funding allotted to the RCMP. This amounted to only $87 million per year. Translated into human resources, it allowed for the hiring of only 446 full time employees for the RCMP, not over this year, not over next year, but over the next six years.
Need I remind the government that its slash and gouging of the RCMP that occurred in 1993 resulted in 2,200 positions being lost, a loss that has never been recouped despite years of protests and requests for increased spending.
Last year the commissioner of the RCMP openly admitted that 2,000 RCMP officers were withdrawn from other enforcement duties to respond to the terrorism crisis. These officers were taken from assignments previously considered to be priorities, such as fighting organized crime and providing frontline policing in Canadian communities. Many of those jobs were left unattended. In the commissioner's own words these files were “put on the back burner” while the RCMP attempted to apprehend terrorists suspected of using this country as a staging ground.
According to the CPA, of the complement of approximately 15,000 RCMP officers, 9,000 were assigned to municipal and provincial contracting responsibilities. Of the remaining 6,000, 2,000 or one-third of them were taken from other law enforcement responsibilities and reassigned to the terrorism file.
Minimally, 2,000 additional officers are needed to service the deficiencies that are being felt the hardest at the community level. The RCMP provides federal policing to all Canadians as well as services under contracts to all provinces, except Ontario and Quebec, the three territories, 200 municipalities, and more than 190 first nations communities.
Last year, I met with the mayor and town manager of Three Hills which is one of the larger towns in my riding of Crowfoot. Mayor Bauman raised concerns about the national resource methodology used to determine RCMP allocations within small communities and the fact that the municipality had no input in terms of how the contracts were drawn up. At our meeting, the mayor informed me that the town was faced with 20% to 25% of its budget being allocated toward policing, an expenditure that this small rural town could ill afford given all the other demands on its financial resources.
Furthermore, the RCMP stationed right in Three Hills was used by neighbouring municipalities who did not contribute financially for this essential service. More and more, Mayor Bauman explained that the services of the police officers were being stretched routinely and there was not a police presence in the community.
While I took the mayor's concerns to the Solicitor General of Canada, she took them to Alberta Solicitor General Heather Forsyth. At issue was the provincial rule that communities of less than 2,500 have police costs fully covered by the provincial and federal governments, while communities such as Three Hills, with a population greater than 2,500, would pick up the entire tab. Mayor Bauman, saying she is only looking for equity across the province, is threatening to refuse paying for the RCMP.
Another town in my riding, Drumheller, has expressed similar frustrations regarding the cost of policing. Last December, I attended a council meeting of the town of Drumheller and although it expressed a number of concerns, the most notable was the lack of RCMP resources. Although RCMP policing is primarily a provincial issue inasmuch as Alberta municipalities contract directly with the provinces for police services, I took the Drumheller concern to the Solicitor General. I did so because Drumheller is in a unique situation in that the RCMP is utilized to investigate disturbances and escapes from the Drumheller prison, which is a federal institution.
In 2001, a riot and murder investigation at the Drumheller prison cost $40,513 in overtime costs, of which $28,359 was the responsibility of the town of Drumheller. As a result of the related trials, the town also incurred significant costs in terms of the overtime and the burden of police services while officers were called to testify. At one time the town of Drumheller had an officer solely dedicated to federal issues such as the Drumheller Institution. However, that position was eliminated and it is now the responsibility of the town.
In 2000, the average caseload for police officers in Canada was 42.1 Criminal Code incidents per officer. In Drumheller, the average was 97 incidents per officer. This number is significant in that Criminal Code offences in Drumheller had dropped 24% from 1999 to 2000.
Quite obviously, the workload of the RCMP officers stationed in Drumheller is unacceptable. It puts a tremendous strain on police officers who are there, a strain that could jeopardize their ability to effectively do their jobs. Therefore, on behalf of the town of Drumheller, I have requested a review of this matter by the Solicitor General with an end to receiving a dedicated RCMP officer employed and paid for directly by Correctional Service Canada, and deployed as soon as possible.
As I stated at the onset of this debate, the RCMP was basically gutted in the early 1990s as the government introduced a program of restraint. This resulted in the loss of 2,200 RCMP positions.
Just over two years ago, in the wake of 9/11, I wrote the attorneys general and solicitors general of each province to inquire how, if indeed at all, community policing had been affected in their respective jurisdictions. In response, the Alberta solicitor general wrote back explaining:
In Alberta, there are 63 urban centres that are responsible for their own policing and contract directly with Canada for policing by the RCMP. These agreements are cost shared between the municipality and Canada based on population size...Through most of the 1990s, federal funding was insufficient to meet the needs of the contractual obligations of the agreements with Alberta...The prolonged period of federal fiscal restraint negatively impacted the RCMP's ability to deliver services required under the various contractual arrangements.
I implore the government to finally do as the Canadian Police Association has asked and that is to provide adequate priority funding for the sake of the children, and for the sake of the nation.
In closing, I wish to express the sentiments of Toronto Police Chief Fantino who said he was:
...deeply disappointed at the recent comments by (the) Solicitor General that police are adequately resourced in the area of child pornography. The Toronto Police Service has received no funding or resources from the federal government in this area. We have, however, managed to move forward thanks to a $2 million grant from the provincial government.
Police Chief Fantino has congratulated the Ontario government for moving because the federal government has not, and today we stand in the House to say thanks to the provincial government in Ontario for responding to the great need.