Public Safety committee  It has been. At any given time within the OPP or any police service—more so the OPP just because of the breadth of area that we provide policing service to—we're not always where we need to be at the right time, unfortunately. We're dealing with something in one community and something happens in the other.

Public Safety committee  No. My wife might testify differently.

Public Safety committee  Without a doubt. I spent many years in various specialist positions, including a tactical team, but other than that I very seldom ever had my gun out of the holster. But I passed the training every year, and I take it religiously, knowing that some day the situation might arise, even at my rank, where I have to take action.

Public Safety committee  I don't know if we've been approached, sir. I could find that out. I strongly suspect we would be available to provide that service under some contract. We have provided it to other police agencies, like first nations police services in Ontario. It's totally within our capability to help do that.

Public Safety committee  Certainly. Those other pieces of use-of-force equipment—the baton, the handcuffs, just your fists or hands or feet—are all precursors, hopefully, to a firearms shoot/don't shoot situation. At times you go from nothing to a shoot situation, and nothing in between is even possible.

Public Safety committee  That's correct.

Public Safety committee  I'd only be guessing, sir. I certainly could find that out, or potentially some other witness could deliver that more accurately.

Public Safety committee  Yes, it is, and that includes some long weapons--shotgun and rifle--as well.

Public Safety committee  Once again, I'd only be guessing, because I'm obviously not a psychologist. But that's always been my assumption: we don't want to have people out there potentially using force of any kind, including firearms and deadly force, who don't fit the psychological profile that's required.

Public Safety committee  That's a very fair assumption. I know that our academy director sits on a North American committee of police trainers, with other state and law enforcement agencies from across the United States and Canada. They really examine best practices, and they try to benefit from what others have learned.

Public Safety committee  Without a doubt.

Public Safety committee  That's very true, sir. I don't know the exact figure, but the vast majority of officers, who are not involved in specialized units like tactical teams, canine, drug enforcement, or areas where they're continually faced with armed confrontation, would probably never draw their guns except in training situations.

Public Safety committee  We do scenario training like that, but of course not with real guns. It's more the kind of scenario where you have to interact with actors, who are usually police officers acting the part. That happens a fair amount at the Ontario Police College. They have a little village set up with mock stores and mock buildings and apartments and street intersections, etc., where they can do that sort of training with actors.

Public Safety committee  Yes, sir, annually. It's legislated in Ontario under the Ontario police act that you have to have annual firearms requalification training, as well as personal safety training in terms of handcuffing and restraining people without the use of a firearm. Of course, the firearm is the last resort, so you have to learn the different techniques to disarm and do things without the firearm so that you have those skills to enable you to do that in a safer way if possible.

Public Safety committee  It's in addition to.