Public Safety committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. My name is Michelaine Lahaie and I'm accompanied today by Tim Cogan, who is my senior director of corporate services, as well as Lesley McCoy, who is my general counsel. Given the short notice that we were provided for this particular hearing, we do n

Public Safety committee  In terms of the number of complaints that we receive, we receive between 2,500 and 3,000 complaints per year about RCMP members. We are then normally asked to review somewhere in the neighbourhood of 250 to 300 of those complaints ourselves. As described by the minister during th

Public Safety committee  The individual who has requested a review has to indicate that they want the complaint reviewed after 60 days. From the time the RCMP has sent out their letter of disposition, the individual has 60 days to tell us they want it reviewed.

Public Safety committee  At present, there are no service standards with respect to that piece. Sometimes it can take as little as a few months to as much as two years, depending upon from where the complaint has been lodged and depending upon the complexity of the complaint.

Public Safety committee  The main issues that we see are about improper attitude. We will see some that deal with improper use of resources, not responding to duty correctly, or what's deemed by the complainant to be improper use of force.

Public Safety committee  We've been consulting extensively with CBSA on this issue. My understanding is that they receive approximately 3,000 complaints a year. We're expecting the numbers to be very similar. Having said that, there will of course be a public education process that will happen around the

Public Safety committee  We had five members of the commission under the old RCMP Act, so this will be five again.

Public Safety committee  No, sir, that's incorrect. We'll just have five members. The commission will have—

Public Safety committee  —five members. That's right.

Public Safety committee  One of the things this bill is going to help with is the fact that there will now be service standards. There will be service standards for the RCMP as well as service standards for CBSA in terms of their responding, which will assist the commission greatly, whereas right now, th

Public Safety committee  I can't speak to what CBSA is doing right now, because we're looking at what we're doing in the future. In terms of the RCMP, they do have a policy document that's in place, but there's no requirement for them to articulate that service standard externally. Right now, there reall

Public Safety committee  The answer to your question is yes. We do have the ability to investigate. I have a team of seven investigators who currently work for me right now. I suspect that with the increase in funding, as well as the new mandate, we will be increasing the number of investigators we have.

Public Safety committee  I'm sorry?

Public Safety committee  No. It's not other police services. We go to civilian contracts and look at using those types of services.

Public Safety committee  They're a mix. I have some who are from other police services. I have some who have come from family and social services, so it really is—