Hon. Gwen Boniface: I will be very quick then, Your Honour. Senator Harder, would you agree with me that as you look at provincial-federal responsibilities of the RCMP you may want to start looking at the three provinces that have provincial police services to see how those divisions take place today, particularly in the integrated fashion, and that may be helpful to look at some of the fit-for-purpose issues that you raise? Would you agree with that?

(On motion of Senator Busson, debate adjourned.)

(At 6:03 p.m., the Senate was continued until Tuesday, December 7, 2021, at 2 p.m.)

Senator Campbell: My question is this: I’ve been here for 16 years. We have been chewing on the RCMP for those 16 years, and I do not see that we have moved an inch. How do we move your motion forward? How do we actually get some action instead of just standing here and talking about it?

Senator Harder: Senator, I think we get some action by having an interest expressed amongst senators through this inquiry, and hopefully that leads to a motion that we can adopt to have such an inquiry, such a mandate focused by the Senate, and begin doing the work and making recommendations.

I have had some discussions with former RCMP officers who feel it is desperate that this inquiry and this investigation take place and recommendations come forward, lest the organization implode from a cultural and, frankly, credibility point of view.

So this is a last-best chance in my view, unless, of course, the government was to set up its own inquiry to form a view. You will know that the provincial policing contracts end in several years, so it actually gives time for these discussions and this planning to take place with the provinces. These are very long contracts, and my fear is that we will lose the opportunity to have this discussion if the contracts are renewed without any questions being asked.