Mr. Chair, I was talking to the mother of one of the fallen officers just two days ago. She explained to me that her son was not supposed to be on duty at the time of this killing, but was called in because of the lack of RCMP officers in the Mayerthorpe detachment.
That is not new to rural Alberta. That is not new to rural areas right across the country from coast to coast. That is exactly what is happening. Not only do we not have enough RCMP officers, but they do not have enough of the resources they need to do their job. That absolutely has to change.
It is frustrating to see individuals attacking front line RCMP officers. The Mayerthorpe detachment has a list of individuals who are considered dangerous. In fact, every police force across Canada has a list of known criminals. The incident that happened in Mayerthorpe could happen in every one of our 308 ridings.
If this is not something of which the House of Commons and in fact the whole of Canada needs to take note, then we are asking to have this incident repeated again. We dare not let that happen or these officers will have died in vain.