Mr. Speaker, one of the first things that the government did upon taking office was to slash 2,200 positions from the RCMP, a loss that has never been recouped.
If the Deputy Prime Minister wants to quote the RCMP commissioner, I will as well. He openly admitted that 2,000 officers were moved off organized crime files and other duties to respond to the terrorism crisis. The Canadian Police Association pleaded with the government to provide better funding after it identified serious shortfalls in local, provincial and national policing.
Why, when a policing shortfall was identified, did the government not respond immediately?