After months of uncertainty hanging over the RCMP, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says the government is committed to keeping Mounties in the business of day-to-day policing across the country — while signalling that improving the federal crimes wing is his priority.

“Bottom line is, we could do both,” said Anandasangaree in an interview on Tuesday about the future of the storied — but troubled — national police force. The interview was conducted before news broke of the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., where the RCMP are the lead investigators.

The ability of the RCMP to do both local and federal policing has been called into question in recent years. 

Multiple reports have concluded the RCMP’s sprawling mandate is straining the institution, with resources being pulled from federal cases to local ones.

The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) told the Liberal government in 2023 that the RCMP’s current mandate is undermining its ability to pursue some of its most pressing and complex investigations, including foreign interference, organized crime and terrorism.

That same year the Mass Casualty Commission, which investigated the April 2020 massacre in Nova Scotia that killed 22 people, put out a report calling on the public safety minister to review and restructure the RCMP.

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau used his final days in office to call for reform, arguing the split focus is straining the RCMP and “maybe not the best use of our resources.”

He argued the Mounties should focus on challenges like national security, violent extremism and terrorism, money laundering, cybercrime and organized crime.

In a departure from his former leader’s position, Anandasangaree said the federal government is committed to “meet the provinces where they’re at” when they discuss renewing their RCMP contracts.

The current agreements expire in 2032 and he said renegotiations will start in “due course.” 

But the minister suggested reforming federal policing will be this government’s priority when it comes to the nearly 153-year-old institution. 

“What I’m focused on primarily is to ensure our federal policing mandate is secured and entrenched,” said Anandasangaree.

Commissioner calls for protected funding

Sitting on the minister’s desk is a proposal from RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme to “rebuild the federal policing program,” while keeping Mounties in front-line roles.   

One of Duheme’s major asks is to insulate federal policing’s finances and resources — which he says are in “a steady state of erosion” — while still being an integrated national police force that’s able to deploy during emergencies.

“The business model for the RCMP is really geared towards the front-line policing work, but we’re lacking on the federal policing side of things,” he said in a separate interview, also before the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge.

“The funding we get for federal policing should be spent on federal policing … there needs to be a stronger structure around federal policing when it comes to training, development, the recruiting — let’s get subject matter experts in the door.”

Saving federal policing is why Duheme said he agreed to push off retirement and take on the lead job at the force.

While he said keeping local policing contracts is a federal and provincial decision, the assurances he’s received from Ottawa provide certainty to thousands of Mounties in those jobs.

“We do have a model that a lot of countries envy. Because you look at it, we are at the community level in provinces and territories,” he said.

“So there is strength in there.” 

‘The things that only it can do’

Former senior public servant and consultant Jim Mitchell isn’t convinced a new funding model is enough to bring federal policing to the level Canada needs.

He recently co-authored A New Blueprint for Government: Reshaping Power, the PMO and the Public Service, which argues the RCMP is no longer fit for purpose. 

Municipal and provincial policing “distracts the organization from doing the things that only it can do,” Mitchell said.

“They don’t have the skills, they don’t the precise mandate, they don’t have the technology, they do not have the training and they don’t have the organizational focus that they need to be a Canadian version of the FBI.”

While he said he understands why the government doesn’t want to take up a potentially controversial change, there is precedent. In response to a wave of controversy the federal government moved security intelligence out of the RCMP’s purview in 1984 and created the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

“The RCMP didn’t want to give up that responsibility, but the government decided that was necessary for the security of the country,” said Mitchell.

“It’s time to do the same thing.”