Procedure and House Affairs committee  All that being said, it's an interesting hypothetical, but unless there is a serious threat to life and limb, I see no reason why we would countermand the need to lock those doors.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm not sure I understand the question.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There has been no discussion on that up to this point. The RCMP members who are assigned to our fourth division, they're assigned in support of PPS. They're a support service to PPS wearing the RCMP uniform as per the policy of the RCMP. There has been no discussion in terms of changing that uniform in any fashion.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We're pretty close.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We're 110ish, but I can get you the exact number.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, it's constant right now. However, as I mentioned to this committee during my last appearance here, we are looking at possibilities to reduce that footprint. There has been some interest already for this potential. It's still a conceptual piece. However, I would suggest that in the short term what you will see while we're waiting for the LTVP and the move from Centre Block is no change.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's the legal advice we received, yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  On specifically how long they would normally take, I'm afraid I don't have an answer for you there. I'm not aware. I do know that the expectation of my predecessors was that it would have been resolved much faster than it was. It took us this long to get our first hearing with the labour board, which we had last week.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thanks for the question, Madam May. There are a couple of pieces I think I need to address on your question that I'm hoping will be helpful. In the first case—and as I said, I will go into this in more detail later on—our ability at this point to enter into collective bargaining with the three associations that are currently in place for PPS is very limited.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. You were expressing concerns about equipment purchases, etc. Any equipment we are in the process of procuring is for PPS use. The RCMP provides us a service for one of our divisions. They're a service provider to us. In a moment I will refer to Mr.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There is a concept right now that we're looking at. I spoke in terms of a resource optimization review, sir. Part of that will include what I want to call right-sizing and making sure we've got the right people doing the right jobs. We are contemplating it at this point, and we are moving forward on a potential reduction of the RCMP footprint on Parliament Hill and in the precinct and, obviously, an associated increase in PPS resources.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, I would appreciate—thank you—the opportunity to add to that. I will be speaking later on in this session in more depth on the labour relations issues. As per the governance model and the structure of PPS, I've ensured that both Speakers' offices are aware of the situation and of my intentions at all points of the process.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'll apologize in advance. I'm getting over a cold, so there's a good chance I'll be coughing throughout this. In terms of our new hires, we were successful in hiring a significant number of new constables as well as detection scanners over the last six months. I would defer to my administration and personnel officer for the specifics.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Sir, we're in the process right now of kicking off what I'm calling a resource optimization review. We're having a look at the posture in its current state and making sure that we're right-sized. Once we finish that exercise, we will be in a better position to know how many more we need in terms of the LTVP, amongst other things, and the pressures we see in the future.