Mr. Speaker, my colleagues have covered this bill very well. I have a couple of points I would like to make which are outside the gamut of what the members have so far touched on.
The legislation will amend the RCMP Superannuation Act to ensure that RCMP members serving in special duty areas while on peacekeeping missions are automatically considered to be on duty 24 hours a day and therefore get complete benefit coverage. At present that is not the case.
As parliamentarians we should take a very close look at the requests to send RCMP personnel into these kinds of situations, not only because of the danger involved, but also when we take a contingent of RCMP from Canada and send them into another country we do not replace them at home. Then we have a shortage of manpower.
If we have sent 200 members to Bosnia, or whatever the number may be, it means there are 200 less RCMP members here to do the work. The RCMP are understaffed in many areas. Some of its special squads are understaffed. A high ranking ex-officer told me that the RCMP does not have enough manpower to look at fraud cases below $200,000 in value. That is a very serious situation. In some of the western detachments a corporal is running a staff sergeant's detachment.
When the government decides to strip the RCMP of that kind of manpower to serve in an honourable way in other countries, it better take a good look at what is being done at home. The old adage is that charity begins at home. Are we going to sacrifice the role and the service which is provided by our national police force when we send RCMP members into various countries for undetermined lengths of time?
The budget of the RCMP, as well, is being chipped away. Our party is very much against that. We feel that if there is an area that should receive additional spending, it should be in the areas of law enforcement and justice. This will strengthen the justice system and provide the kind of safe streets and communities which the government likes to talk about, but is not producing very much, certainly since I have been in this House.
There is no question that the pension benefits should be amended to provide for the kind of coverage that is indicated in this bill. We will be examining the clauses of the bill carefully when it is before the committee. We would like to know if a member is off duty, perhaps surf boarding and he injures himself, what happens. Is he covered? The bill is not that specific in those areas. Therefore, we will be looking for confirmation in all of those areas to determine whether the bill is sound as it stands or whether it requires amendments.
I would like to again sum up by emphasizing that when we send members of the RCMP into these situations, we had better take a careful look at the hole that we are leaving at home.
The RCMP are in a very delicate situation. Can the commissioner of the RCMP or any senior officer stand up publicly and say “We are risking service to the public in this area”. Some areas are very serious. We have organized crime and the bikers whom we all know about. We have areas that we should not be taking strength from but adding to.
I have spoken to members in charge of the special units in my area, in particular, in western Canada. They tell me that without question they are short-staffed and understaffed. When we send our troops abroad we are weakening our own forces here which means that we are not enhancing the possibility of greater safety in our streets and in our communities but we are doing exactly the opposite. We ought not be doing that. We should be looking at this.
I hope that the members who have an opportunity to examine the witnesses appearing before the committee on this bill will put those kinds of questions squarely before the witnesses, including, I hope, the minister who attends and perhaps the commissioner of the RCMP.
