Our next chapter: The RCMP 2024-27 strategic plan
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List of acronyms and abbreviations
- 2SLGBTQIA+
- Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Plus
- CPIC
- Canadian Police Information Centre
- CFL
- Canadian Football League
- CTA
- Community Tripartite Agreements
- DICE
- Diverse and Inclusive Pre-Cadet Experience
- DNA
- deoxyribonucleic acid
- IPTP
- Indigenous Pre-Cadet Training Program
- RCMP
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police
List of tables
Commissioner's message
We celebrated our 150th anniversary in 2023 and we spent the year highlighting the dynamic history of the RCMP and its future direction. For over 150 years, the employees within our iconic organization have been providing service to communities across Canada and internationally. We are ready for our next chapter and this plan supports our intentions and priorities for the next few years.
Since becoming Commissioner in March 2023, I have had the pleasure of visiting divisions across the country to witness firsthand the relentless dedication of our employees towards modernization and policing excellence. We are an organization made up of some of the finest employees Canada has to offer, who care deeply about serving all Canadians and upholding the law. Our employees are committed to encouraging a positive and professional culture as we work towards our goals of continuous improvement and innovation.
At the same time, we continue to work on building greater trust with Canadians, including equity seeking groups. We are actively engaging in the continuous process of reconciliation, and working to strengthen trust and relationships with First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples. We are listening and taking positive actions to address these long-term issues that extend beyond the timeframe of this plan but will be supported by this strategy.
To make progress over the next few years, we have identified three core priorities that will guide the focus of our resourcing and investments, while we continue to support a safe and secure Canada. Specifically, we will turn our attention to recruitment and retention, workplace culture and operational excellence.
I want to thank every RCMP employee for continuing to believe in the change we are trying to make, as well as their admirable self-sacrifice and dedication to protecting and serving Canadian families, businesses and communities. We are at an important time in our history and we are up for the challenge.
Mike Duheme
RCMP Commissioner
Introduction: Our pledge
The RCMP has been part of the fabric of Canada since 1873 – over 150 years. It is Canada's national police service and one of the only police services recognized around the world for both policing excellence and for its image – the “Mountie”. The RCMP's presence can be seen in every province and territory across the country.
The RCMP's broad reach and influence is both national and international. Our frontline workers dedicate their personal welfare to public safety and the well-being of Canadians.
The RCMP continues to transform to establish trustworthy and effective policing operations. We acknowledge some improvements are necessary across the organization. We must continue to recognize the contributions the RCMP has made to public safety in Canada, while pledging to strive continuously for excellence. We are proud to serve Canadians.
Who we are
As Canada's national police service, the RCMP is a critical element of the Government of Canada's commitment to keeping Canadians safe and secure. With a broad and complex mandate, the RCMP works to prevent crime at the municipal, provincial/territorial and federal levels, and provides a federal presence from coast-to-coast-to-coast.
The RCMP offers renowned services that include, but are not limited to:
- conducting federal policing activities in every province and territory in Canada, as well as internationally
- providing specialized policing services to the RCMP and law enforcement across the country through training and cutting-edge forensic work
- leading policing services in diverse environments
- delivering professional and responsive internal services that enable and support frontline operations
Vision
Providing exceptional policing services to keep Canada safe and secure.
Mission
To preserve the peace, uphold the law and provide quality service in partnership with our communities.
Purpose
For over 150 years, the RCMP has been Canada's national police service. From coast-to-coast-to-coast, at the community, provincial/territorial and federal levels, as well as internationally, we strive to prevent crime, investigate offences, enforce the law, and ultimately keep Canada's population, and Canada's interest's safe and secure.
Operating context
RCMP at a glance footnote 1
- 12,000 active on-road vehicles
- 1,700 off-road vehicles
- 334 marine vessels
- 30 aircraft
- 19,164 police officers
- 21.5% women
- 6.6% Indigenous Peoples
- 13.7% racialized individuals
- 1,280 cadets entering the RCMP Training Academy (Depot) in 2024-25
- 10,076 public service employees
- 2,647 civilian members
- 800+ detachments
- 3,503 buildings
- approximately 3,000,000 calls for service (a 2% increase since 2023)
Policing in an increasingly complex environment
The RCMP operates in a rapidly changing environment. New threats are constantly emerging and the capability gaps between police and criminals are widening. New forms of criminality are developing, particularly in the digital world.
An informed awareness of the broader trends influencing community safety will help the RCMP foresee and adapt to mitigate risks. We will do this to meet the evolving needs of Canadians, many of whom are victims of violence, substance abuse and mental health challenges. To help navigate this complex environment, we completed a 2023 Environmental Scan to inform us on how best to confront modern challenges such as climate change, cybercrime, foreign interference, a loss of social cohesion and rising costs.
Our challenge is to meet these pressures with the appropriate skills, approaches and tools that are required to ensure Canadians' and Canada's interests remain safe and secure. We will continue to plan and prioritize our resources to ensure sustainability.
The RCMP commits to addressing each challenge head on. We will do so as we continue to deliver on Government of Canada priorities, including advancing reconciliation with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples in Canada, working with partners to address gender-based violence, implementing changes to firearms legislation and addressing recommendations from the Mass Casualty Commission and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Drivers for improvement
Between 2007 and 2023, approximately 70 key external reports were published that contained over 1,100 recommendations for the RCMP to review and develop concrete plans to address. Common themes throughout these reports include:
- Governance and accountability
- Evidence-based decision-making
- Workplace violence, harassment and discrimination
- Equity, diversity and inclusion
- Conduct and grievance processes
- Issues of trust and transparency
- Collaboration with partners
- Community integration and partnership
- Operational tools and technologies
- Recruitment and retention
- Professional development (including training, coaching and mentoring)
- Mental health and well-being
- Gender-based and intimate partner violence
- Independent police review
- Crisis management
- Organizational standards
- Frameworks and protocols
- Systemic racism
While numerous actions have been taken in response to these recommendations, historically there has not been a consistent approach to monitoring and reporting on implementation. Over the past five years, the RCMP has been engaged in sweeping modernization efforts.
These efforts have been in response to several reviews of the organization, such as Broken Lives / Broken Dreams: The Devastating Effects of Sexual Harassment On Women in the RCMP, written by the Honourable Michel Bastarache, which served as a catalyst for culture change within the RCMP. Organizational efforts are also being informed by Turning the Tide Together, the 2023 final report of the Mass Casualty Commission. In May 2023, the Commissioner established a new Reform, Accountability and Culture Sector, which is responsible for leading the response to all the major external reviews of the organization, as well as providing centralized coordination, leadership, and oversight of internal culture change initiatives. The RCMP is taking a holistic, organization-wide approach to implementation, focusing its efforts, not just on completing recommendations, but on assessing impacts and factors that must be addressed to realize effective, long-term change.
RCMP's three core responsibilities
Federal Policing
Through Federal Policing, the RCMP prevents, detects and investigates serious and organized crime, financial crime, and cybercrime, as well as crimes related to national security. It also enforces federal statutes, conducts international policing activities and ensures border integrity and the security of major events, state officials, dignitaries and foreign missions. Federal Policing protects Canada, its people, and its interests against the greatest domestic and international criminal threats, including risks to national security, transnational and serious organized crime, and cybercrime.
Federal Policing executes its mission to protect Canada, its people and its interests against serious and complex threats with a vision of being a global leader in safety and security. Through its Federal Policing mandate, the RCMP:
- safeguards Canada from the threats of serious and organized crime, financial crime, cybercrime and criminal activity related to national security
- upholds the continuity of our constitutional government
- protects Canada beyond its borders and advances Canadian policing interests globally
As with the broader RCMP, recent internal and external reviews have found that Federal Policing faces a number of challenges. In response, Federal Policing is working diligently to plan and implement initiatives to improve its governance, to modernize recruitment and training, and to improve priority setting and performance reporting through data.
Transformation of the Federal Policing Program
It is clear that transformation is necessary to drive modernization efforts and build a sustainable and efficient foundation for Federal Policing. The first step in becoming a forward-leaning, well-equipped national program that can execute on its mandate has been the establishment of a regional model. This model will properly align the necessary authority and accountability within the Federal Policing governance structure.
Specialized Policing Services
Through Specialized Policing Services, the RCMP maintains national criminal data repositories and provides training, expertise and investigative assistance to all Canadian law enforcement agencies including in forensics, identification, violent crime analysis, criminal intelligence and online child exploitation. It provides specialized services to prevent and investigate firearms crimes and administer the Firearms Act and related regulations. It also provides internal technical services to support operations in the collection of digital evidence, the delivery of policing information technology tools and the oversight of departmental security standards.
Specialized Policing Services at work: footnote 2
- Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre
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- Processed 63,500 fraud reports and received close to 39,000 calls
- Carried out close to 9,000 disruption efforts
- Carried out almost 700 fraud prevention and awareness activities
- Canadian Firearms Program
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- Issued close to 490,000 individual firearms licences
- Refused more than 900 license applications
- Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC)
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- In the 2023/2024 fiscal year, there were over 300 million CPIC transactions, which includes criminal record information
- CPIC information is directly accessed by more than 250 domestic law enforcement and public safety agencies and indirectly accessed by thousands of international law enforcement and public safety agencies
- National DNA Databank
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- As of March 2024, the criminal and humanitarian indices contained almost 684,000 DNA profiles routinely searched to generate leads
- Resulted in nearly 91,000 DNA matches in support of criminal and humanitarian investigations
- Security Intelligence Background Section
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- Completed a record of more than 78,500 law enforcement record checks
- Sensitive and Specialized Investigative Services
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- Increased the number of identified Canadian victims whose data have been uploaded to the International Child Sexual Exploitation Database
- Reported 3,250 travel notifications where registered sex offenders reported travel outside of Canada
Contract and Indigenous Policing
Through Contract and Indigenous Policing, the RCMP provides services in support of safe communities by uniformed and non-uniformed RCMP employees. This includes the general administration of justice, preservation of peace, community policing and the prevention of crime. An important focus is advancing reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in Canada, and engaging with the communities we serve.
RCMP contract policing is provided through Police Services Agreements, which are negotiated between the federal government and provinces, territories and municipalities. Police Service Agreements are commonly referred to as contracts, which is why we use the term "contract policing". The RCMP currently provides contract policing services to eight provinces, three territories and under direct contract to 150 municipalities in Canada.
The RCMP is also the police service for approximately 550 Indigenous communities: 450 First Nations, 40 Inuit and 58 Métis communities. The RCMP continues to build and strengthen its relationship through engagements to ensure the inclusion of First Nations, Inuit and Métis voices, perspectives and advice in new and innovative ways of working together.
Our commitment to advancing reconciliation with First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples
Recruitment and retention
As the RCMP renews its commitment to reconciliation, we continue to prioritize engagement with First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples to build policies, practices and procedures that reflect Indigenous voices.
The RCMP will improve recruitment and retention by:
- continuing to implement the Indigenous Pre-Cadet Training Program (IPTP)
- improving greater awareness and understanding on the value of Indigenous recruitment
- implementing national and divisional reconciliation strategies
The inclusion of Indigenous perspectives will lead to innovative solutions and new approaches that will strengthen and increase cultural awareness and competencies to improve excellence in operations and how we serve and protect.
Trust and culture
While RCMP leadership is engaging with national First Nations, Inuit and Métis leaders, our employees are also contributing to building stronger relationships every day with leaders and members of the hundreds of Indigenous communities we serve.
This journey will take time and requires commitment from the RCMP, build on acknowledging past harm and listening with respect and understanding, while taking positive actions to improve our shared future.
We will work to establish trust by:
- supporting the well-being and growth of Indigenous communities
- increasing our understanding of Indigenous cultures, histories and rights and how this can enhance operations and improve relationships with Indigenous communities
- building strong, respectful relationships, which will lead to mutually beneficial partnerships
- recognizing Indigenous culture, such as the RCMP ribbon skirt, which features the colours yellow, red, blue and white to represent both the four directions and the RCMP colours
We will continue using an inclusive and respectful approach to cultivate trust with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities and employees through various engagement strategies including employee networks such as the Women's Indigenous Network.
Serving communities
The RCMP has a long history as Canada's national police service steeped in and reflecting Canada's evolution as a country. We continue to embrace the principle of ‘Nothing about us, without us' and work to ensure First Nations, Inuit and Métis voices, perspectives and advice guide new and innovative ways of working. We have begun strengthening policing protocols and are committed to working with communities to mutually define goals.
The RCMP will continue to strive towards policing excellence by:
- increasing the use of restorative justice
- implementing procedures to conduct conscientious procurement
- surpassing the target of 5% of the total value of contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses
- working to maximize the benefits of the Community Tripartite Agreements (CTA) through the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program, through consultation with all divisions
- increasing greater awareness and understanding
- implementing national and divisional reconciliation strategies
- providing police service delivery that is professional, dedicated and responsive to the needs and cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples and communities
We are committed to establishing a new path, working with Indigenous Peoples, and building meaningful, sustainable actions into our everyday work.
Top priorities
The RCMP continues to deliver its policing mandate across Canada, with no indication that the demand for these services will decrease over time. For this reason, the RCMP will focus on the following key priorities to ensure the organization is able to handle increasing workloads.
We have identified three areas of focus that will help achieve this:
- Recruiting and retaining a diverse and skilled workforce
- Ensuring a workplace culture that is healthy, inclusive and trusted by RCMP employees
- Supporting excellence in operations
A. Recruiting and retaining a diverse and skilled workforce
Ensuring the RCMP has sufficient capacity to deliver its mandate is critical. It is not just about bringing in more police officers and civilian employees – it is about finding diverse and capable candidates to work with us. The RCMP faces challenges with vacancies, recruitment and retention that impact every aspect of the organization.
Current status
The RCMP's hiring, staffing and onboarding processes support individuals in their career development and promotes long-term retention. Ongoing work is being done to support RCMP police officer recruitment, including the reduction of processing times, filling troops to Depot, and supplementing the cadet training process with the promotion of experienced police officers. Continuous effort is being made to increase retention across all position levels, including:
- adopting flexible posting plans where candidates are involved in selecting their preferred first posting based on career goals, skill sets and personal interests (assuming availability)
- adapting police recruiting to modern labour market demographics to inform how we recruit and what we offer
- understanding the environment and working from an evidence-based approach
- using market research to identify ideal candidates from a geographic, demographic, and psychographic perspective laying the foundation for the communications and advertising plan
- renewing police officer recruitment and implementing a number of changes to our processes, technologies, and enablers, which are beginning to show positive results in terms of cadet applications
- establishing a dedicated recruitment modernization unit with a mandate to drive innovation, enhancement, key targeted initiatives, and continuous improvement
- assessing potential talent gaps and planning for future workforce needs to inform career development and training
- continuing to achieve excellent end of year results (Fiscal Year 2023/24) pertaining to diversity in cadet loading with a 5.8% increase in Indigenous Cadets and a 20.2% increase in racialized cadets trooped to Depot over the previous year
- fostering new partnerships to expand on recruiting, including an RCMP/CFL collaboration with RCMP-themed games in all nine CFL cities
A task force has been put in place to improve retention. Recommendations include:
- Ensuring meaningful onboarding of employees across the organization
- Cultivating a sense of personal connection and belonging among all employees
- Prioritizing the development of strong leaders at all levels of the organization
- Improving mechanisms to collect and use information from departing employees as part of off-boarding
- Exploring mechanisms to mitigate potentially negative impacts of mobility requirements for police officers
- Exploring mechanisms to better support civilian members and public service employees in positions of elevated risk
We take an overall holistic approach to recruitment and retention and consider the competing needs of federal, specialized and contract policing to ensure a balanced, complementary approach to manage vacancies strategically.
Moving forward
To address this priority, key initiatives for the next three years include:
- implementing the RCMP's first dedicated First Nations, Inuit and Métis Recruitment Strategy for all categories of employees
- seeking advanced technological solutions to enhance applicant assessments and overall efficiency of the existing Applicant Tracking System
- continuing to modernize the RCMP police officer recruitment program to attract applicants from diverse backgrounds and experiences, and consider unique challenges faced by the divisions
- pursuing the development of a Federal Policing Recruit Development Program to offer direct entry to positions within Federal Policing and monitoring the impact of this model on training and resourcing for contract policing and throughout the organization
- continuing to improve assessment of cadet suitability , in a culturally sensitive manner, against RCMP core values through psychometric assessments and aptitude testing to ensure right fit and applying analysis of results
- ensuring all employees know how to refer talent to apply
B. Ensuring a workplace culture that is healthy, inclusive and trusted by RCMP employees
The RCMP is working hard to be a healthy and inclusive organization, where everyone feels safe, valued and respected, and one that both employees and Canadians trust. Our employees and the communities we serve deserve nothing less. A strong workplace culture is crucial to the RCMP's excellence as a police service.
Workplace culture is a way of thinking, behaving and working that exists across an organization. It is how employees feel about and experience their workplace. Culture influences morale, decision making, and behaviours, including how employees interact with each other and those they serve.
Current status
We are putting in place key initiatives to address issues, such as harassment, discrimination and systemic racism in the RCMP. These experiences also disproportionately affect particular groups, including women, Indigenous individuals, and members of racialized and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. Findings and over 300 recommendations from various reports point to the need for long-term and comprehensive culture change in the RCMP. To make the change and address these findings, a workplace culture strategy will be developed, rooted in promoting a more equitable, diverse and inclusive workplace, supporting employee health and well-being, strengthening accountability and expectations for behaviour, and providing leadership and training.
We have a long way to go but we are proud of our progress to date. Recent efforts have set a strong foundation for long term change, including improving governance, renewing our core values, modernizing leadership development and overhauling the harassment resolution process. Further updates on RCMP reform, including culture change efforts, are available on our website.
Moving forward
As we go forward, it is critical that we measure our workplace culture, so we can report on our progress and identify areas for improvement. We know it is crucial that the RCMP unites around building a culture that is more inclusive, healthy and trusted by RCMP employees.
To support these needs, the RCMP will develop and implement a RCMP workplace culture strategy, including a performance measurement framework. Aligned with the findings and recommendations of external reports on RCMP culture, the strategy will communicate our culture change direction and priorities, and will be developed in collaboration with the RCMP Holistic Culture Change Committee, a collaborative committee that provides guidance and recommendations on workplace culture. The strategy will build on our work to date and will enhance transparency, accountability and trust regarding our actions on culture change.
Within the strategy, a performance measurement framework will report on progress toward a workplace culture that is healthy, inclusive and trusted by RCMP employees. A Gender-based Analysis Plus lens will be used to ensure the strategy is informed by the lived experiences of employees. This includes particular considerations around roles, classification, rank, tenure, and the diverse personal identities of employees.
A number of key initiatives will help us make progress across these priority areas toward a workplace culture that is healthy, inclusive and trusted by RCMP employees:
- implementing a strengthened conduct process to ensure inappropriate behaviour is addressed consistently and increasing communication to demonstrate how the RCMP is addressing misconduct
- prioritizing the renewal of the RCMP Employee Well-being Strategy, with a dedicated framework for supporting mental health
- strengthening focus on the prevention and early resolution of conflict, harassment and other inappropriate behaviours
- focusing on the Independent Centre for Harassment Resolution, and ensuring understanding across divisions of the Canada Labour Code harassment and violence prevention and resolution process, and how it intersects with the conduct process
- developing a coordinated approach to workplace restoration to support managers and employees to recover collectively following harmful behaviour
- continuing integration of character leadership throughout training and promotions processes
- continuing concrete actions to advance anti-racism, equity and inclusion in the RCMP
- strengthening the implementation of official languages objectives to meet legislative requirements and public expectations
A change in culture will not occur without effort. It will require continuous attention and action, to address challenges and resistance. It will also require a collective effort, with shared responsibility across all sectors and levels of the organization. Moving forward, the RCMP is committed to sustained efforts over the long term, building on existing efforts and putting greater emphasis on how employees feel about and experience all aspects of the workplace, and how it impacts our work.
To support trust, the RCMP published its first Transparency and Trust Strategy in May 2023, enabled by Open Government, with a multi-year action plan. The strategy offers up opportunities to enhance accountability, foster trust, drive innovation and change, enhance services and policies, foster evidence-based decision making, nurture community policing and become a more efficient and responsive public safety organization as a whole.
C. Supporting excellence in operations
The RCMP is Canada's national police service, supporting all law enforcement across the country. The RCMP provides policing services to eight provinces, three territories, 550 Indigenous communities and under direct contract to 150 municipalities in Canada. Policing is at the heart of what the RCMP does. This includes much of rural Canada, all of the Canadian North, and many towns and large urban areas in contract provinces. This frontline policework contributes to Canada's safety and security through intervention and enforcement, crime prevention, and outreach activities.
Equipping our people
Over the next three years, this plan will support RCMP operations by advancing the following key initiatives to equip our teams:
- addressing priority equipment needs through the procurement of body-worn cameras to improve transparency and accountability
- implementing of RCMP real property portfolio strategy and RCMP housing strategy in partnership with divisions, with a focus on addressing urgent areas of need
- delivering new technologies, instrumentation and modernized workflows to achieve high-quality, impartial and timely forensic service
- supporting Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in the implementation of biometrics to expedite the safe and efficient processing of citizenship applications
- positioning the RCMP for the responsible use of artificial intelligence to support operations, mission insights and decision making
- implementing blue force tracking capabilities to all operational police officers, which will allow for real-time tracking of police officers while they are outside of their vehicles
- continuing the improvement of tools and equipment, including cameras, kit, pistols, air fleet
Striving for police excellence
The next three years will continue to demonstrate the RCMP's commitment to excellence in how we serve Canadians, both internal and external to the organization:
- collaborating with police and nonpolice partner agencies to support a multidisciplinary approach on mass casualty/disaster victim identification training
- advancing the work of the National Cybercrime Coordination Centre by implementing the National Cybercrime Solution to facilitate the secure exchange and analysis of cybercrime data and intelligence with law enforcement partners
- creating a new secure cybercrime portal to exchange information with law enforcement agencies and allow the public to report cybercrime and fraud
- assisting in addressing gun crime by expanding partnerships, capacity, and submissions into the Canadian Integrated Ballistics Identification Network, providing timely investigative leads to the frontline
- introducing new online services for firearms licences
- continuing to develop best-in-class internal services through communications, strategic policy, governance, human resources, finance and digital transformation
- cultivating a digital mindset in the RCMP and adopting a resilient digital infrastructure
Through the Canadian Police College, advanced, specialized training and education is provided to frontline workers who support public safety in Canada and internationally.
In 2023-24, 135 course sessions were delivered to over 2,400 course participants.
We know that it will be important to implement these initiatives alongside efforts to create a workplace culture that is healthy, inclusive and trusted by RCMP employees. As a driver for organizational performance, improving workplace culture also shapes the RCMP's reputation and, ultimately, its ability to achieve operational excellence.
Performance metrics
Ultimate outcomes
The ultimate outcomes for the RCMP's strategic priorities are as follows:
- Recruitment and retention of a diverse and skilled workforce
- A workforce that is diverse and skilled, where employees are satisfied and committed to the RCMP and its mandate
- Ensuring a healthy and inclusive culture characterized by trust
- A workplace culture that is healthy, inclusive and trusted by RCMP employees
- Supporting excellence in operations
- A workplace with improved kit/equipment and dedication to excellence in policing
A suite of short-term indicators (2024-27) has been developed that intends to measure progress in achieving these outcomes, all of which are interconnected to best support excellence in policing.
Measuring progress and key performance indicators
| 2024-25 priorities | Metrics |
|---|---|
| Recruitment |
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| Workplace culture table 4 footnote 1 |
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| Operational excellence |
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Table 1 footnotes
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Enhanced awareness and availability of mental health and well-being programs for employees is a priority for the RCMP and long-term outcomes are under development.
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