Mr. Chair, as I have said many times in this House before, I do not involve myself with the operational details of the force. In fact, I would hope that nobody in this House would suggest that any government, of whatever stripe, should involve itself in the operational details of the national police force. There are too many shocking examples of other countries around the world where police forces end up being directed by governments or political parties, and it is not a democracy.
As far as I am concerned, the RCMP Act is clear. The administration and day to day operations of the force are left up to the commissioner and his officers, his assistant commissioners and others across the country.
The redeployment took place after a careful consideration of the strategic needs of the RCMP and the province of Quebec as a national police force. The Sûreté du Québec does local policing in the province of Quebec as does the Ontario Provincial Police in Ontario. The presence of the RCMP in Quebec is only as it relates to national policing activities. Those, for example, include the fight against organized crime and issues around the border.
In fact, there are no fewer RCMP officers today in the province of Quebec. There are exactly the same number, but they have been redeployed, after discussions with the Sûreté du Québec and others, to ensure that the force is deploying those officers in a way that makes strategic sense.
We live in a world now where modern policing requires the strategic deployment of officers. It is not always having an officer in a car to do effective policing, especially if it is the only national police force in a province, not the local police force.