Procedure and House Affairs committee  Look, I don't disagree that we need to have greater dialogue about how we're going to handle these events, because I think this is the beginning, not the end. I think we'll have future events that we're unprepared for, and I think we had better try to improve on that. I think the RCMP needs to take a stronger role nationally in dealing with what I would argue—and as the chief has said—is a national security event.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If I may, Madam Chair, I think Chief Sloly has identified the issues. Look, we're supposed to learn from these experiences. There are no two the same. Ottawa would have 250 protests and demonstrations a year, and not once did we see anything that came close to what we saw in Ottawa with the convoy.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Through you, Madam Chair, I thank the member for the question. Absolutely. I think that's the way we can reduce the risk, in particular in front of the parliamentary precinct. I want to include in that the Langevin building. Although it is not part of the parliamentary precinct, it is the Office of the Prime Minister.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's okay. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you to the committee for inviting me here today. By way of introduction, I'm currently a senator representing the province of Ontario. I've previously worked as a police chief of the Ottawa Police Service and the Durham Regional Police Service and served with the RCMP for almost 25 years, leaving as an assistant commissioner.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. My question is for Assistant Deputy Minister Jacques. If I may, you spoke to information provided to the financial institutions that would allow those institutions to not permit the accounts or the financial assets to be accessible by certain individuals.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's truly appreciated. I feel like the “beating of the dead horse” person here, because I think we've gone through the same discussion, but it seems to me that section 62 is extremely prescriptive, and that's where we come in. The inquiry, under section 63, has much more latitude for growth and can expand the role based on what the inquiry hears.

Public Safety committee  Thank you very much for the question, sir. Certainly 15 or 20 years ago, the RCMP would not have allowed—or seldom would have allowed—you to transfer to the isolated northern communities in the three northern territories. At that time we had hundreds, if not more, applicants looking for transfers north who already had a substantial amount of experience.

Public Safety committee  Certainly in 2001 when we ran our Inuit recruiting pilot project, that's exactly the way we did that. We identified the barriers to hiring for Inuit into the RCMP. We developed solutions past those barriers, which did not include a reduction in qualifications. It was raising people to the bar, like most of us have been mentored in our lives.

Public Safety committee  I'm getting it now.

Public Safety committee  When I was a police chief in Ottawa, we had a mobile mental health crisis unit, which meant that we had mental health workers working hand in glove with police officers supporting [Technical difficulty—Editors]. The concern is that it's still a downstream service and I would argue that we would be much better off with a large infusion of funding into both mental illness and drug addiction to try to head off that problem, rather than still having police officers show up at the door.

Public Safety committee  Thank you very much for the question. My police training was with the RCMP, and we were training police officers to go everywhere and anywhere in Canada. You found out where you were going close to the end of your career. The training was not specific to the location you were about to go to.

Public Safety committee  It's not a new problem, though. When I was there in 2001 when I first returned to Nunavut, we were bringing in officers from the south. When I was the police chief in Ottawa, I was seconding police officers to Nunavut to do short stints to help out as well. I would argue that the solution to increased time in communities in the north, as well as having the number of officers at a sustainable level, is going to be developing a recruiting strategy in Nunavut for Nunavut.

Public Safety committee  I would agree that longer would be better, but it's more difficult to supply the resources if you extend the number of years. You are not going to have as many officers willing to take those postings to the north.

Public Safety committee  The expectations that are placed on you in northern communities are to be not just a police officer but also to be a member of the recreation committee and to coach different teams, because there's an expectation placed by the community that when you come into those communities.

Public Safety committee  I think that question was for me. I didn't hear if you said it was, but if it was, certainly I do think two years is a short period of time. I think really good police officers will make themselves engaged quickly and ramp it up. The communities often identify that two years is not long enough.