ARCHIVED - 2011-2012 Departmental Performance Report

Raison d’être

The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP (CPC) is an independent agency created by Parliament and is not part of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The CPC's fundamental role is to provide civilian review of the conduct of the RCMP members in carrying out their policing duties, thereby holding the RCMP accountable to the public. The CPC ensures that complaints about the conduct of RCMP members are examined fairly and impartially. Its findings and recommendations help identify, correct and prevent the recurrence of policing problems caused by the conduct of specific RCMP members or by deficiencies in RCMP policies or practices. The CPC has the authority to make findings and recommendations, but cannot impose discipline or make monetary awards to complainants.

Responsibilities

As set out in Part VII of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act (RCMP Act), the mandate of the CPC is to:

• receive complaints from the public about the conduct of RCMP members;^{Footnote 1}
• conduct reviews when complainants are not satisfied with the RCMP's handling of their complaints;
• hold hearings and conduct investigations; and
• report findings and make recommendations.

Vision

Excellence in policing through accountability.

Mission

To provide civilian review of RCMP members' conduct in performing their duties so as to hold the RCMP accountable to the public.

Strategic Outcome and Program Activity Architecture (PAA)

In order to effectively pursue its mandate, the CPC aims to achieve the following strategic outcome.

The following graphic outlines the CPC's Program Activity Architecture:

Organizational Priorities

Risk Analysis

In order to foster an organizational culture that supports risk-informed decision-making, focuses on results, and enables the consideration of both opportunity and innovation, the CPC, as part of its annual planning process, conducts a risk assessment and identifies appropriate actions to mitigate any identified risks. In setting out its plans for 2011-2012, the CPC identified the following key risks and mitigation strategies.

Insufficient Funding

There was a risk that the CPC would not receive its requested interim funding from Treasury Board, which was needed to continue its critical work in the areas of outreach, strategic policy and research, as well as to meet any surge in complaints, reviews or special investigations. The CPC received $2.7M in interim funding from the Treasury Board's Management Reserve; therefore, the risk did not materialize.

RCMP Implementation of CPC's Recommendations

As the CPC's recommendations to the RCMP are not binding, there is a risk that key recommendations will not be implemented. To monitor this risk, the CPC continued its systematic tracking of recommendations made to the RCMP and maintained a "Recommendations Awaiting Implementation" section on its website.

Responding to Major Policing Events

The CPC's mandate requires it to respond to serious incidents between the RCMP and the public. The unpredictable frequency and magnitude of such events can create financial and human resource pressures which impact workloads and services standards. The CPC continued to track its workload and where required used established supply arrangements for specialized investigators and reallocated staff in order to maintain the capacity to undertake important high-profile investigations.

Recruitment and Retention of Key Staff

The CPC's temporary funding situation continued to present recruitment and retention challenges and the risk of insufficient human resources to meet work demands. To mitigate this risk, the CPC maintained its integrated business and human resources planning and continued its workplace of choice activities. A classification and staffing strategy was put in place to address organizational changes and recruitment/staffing pressures.

The CPC also developed a working group of employees from all units to examine the results of the Public Service Employee Survey and develop an action plan to enhance the workplace. Investments in the workplace of choice initiative contributed to the retention of key staff and the recruitment of new employees.

Summary of Performance

Expenditure Profile

Estimates by Vote

For information on the CPC's organizational votes and/or statutory expenditures, please see the Public Accounts of Canada for 2012 (Volume II). An electronic version of this publication is available on the Public Works and Government Services Canada website.^{Footnote 4}

Strategic Outcome

In order to effectively pursue its mandate, the CPC aims to achieve the following strategic outcome: RCMP members are held publicly accountable for their conduct in the performance of their duties.

Program Activity: Civilian Review of RCMP members' conduct in the performance of their duties

Lessons Learned

Over the past several years, a number of independent inquiries and task forces have all recommended enhanced civilian oversight of the RCMP. The creation of a new oversight regime was announced in Budget 2010. Bill C-38, which outlined these changes, was introduced in Parliament on June 14, 2010. Bill C-38 did not advance beyond first reading before the 2011 federal election call. On June 20, 2012, the Government of Canada tabled Bill C-42, which is intended to strengthen the RCMP review and complaint processes and support a re-invigoration of police accountability.

The CPC continues to support the government's efforts to implement legislative changes, and over the past five years the CPC has been working to ensure it provides the best possible service to the public under the existing legislative framework in order to better position itself to meet expectations under a new mandate.

To this end, the CPC has:

• structured its organization to streamline processes;
• implemented and respected service standards (while urging the RCMP to do the same);
• focused more resources on outreach; and
• focused on trends analysis (e.g. use of conducted energy weapons, police investigating the police, and data analysis on complaints nationally and by region).

The CPC believes these types of initiatives are encouraging the RCMP to improve its internal handling of individual complaints, as well as to implement national policies that will hopefully lead to better training, and consequently to fewer incidents of conflict with the public.

This would not have been possible without interim funding over and above the CPC's resource base, which has been approved by the government over the past five years.

Program Activity: Internal Services

Internal Services are groups of related activities and resources that are administered to support the needs of programs and other corporate obligations of an organization. These groups are: Management Services; Communications Services; Legal Services; Human Resources Management Services; Financial Management Services; Information Management Services; Information Technology Services; Materiel Services; Acquisition Services; and Travel and Other Administrative Services. Internal Services include only activities and resources that apply across an organization and not those provided specifically to a program.

Financial Highlights

Financial Statements

The CPC's Financial Statements for the reporting period can be viewed on the CPC's website.^{Footnote 5}

List of Supplementary Information Tables

Electronic supplementary information tables listed in the 2011-2012 Departmental Performance Report can be found on the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat website.^{Footnote 6}

• Greening Government Operations  

Organizational Contact Information

By telephone:

From anywhere in Canada: 1-800-665-6878
TTY: 1-866-432-5837

By fax:
604-501-4095

By mail:
P.O. Box 88689
Surrey, BC V3W 0X1

On the Web:
Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP