Departmental Results Report 2020-2021

From the Chairperson

In fiscal year 2020-21, policing in Canada once again came under intense scrutiny as police-involved shooting deaths, use of force incidents, and wellness checks gone wrong led to calls for reform.

For the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP (CRCC), this scrutiny has translated into increased public complaints and requests that the CRCC review the RCMP's handling of those complaints. Indeed, since fiscal year 2016-17, there has been a 22% increase in the number of public complaints received, and a 32% increase in requests for review.

At present, the RCMP Act does not require the RCMP to implement public complaint service standards. The RCMP is mandated to respond to CRCC interim reports "as soon as feasible"—the definition of which has recently been challenged in Federal Court—and indicate whether the recommendations are accepted. The CRCC and the RCMP continue to refine the operational MOU signed in late 2019 to address this gap in the oversight framework—a gap that has led to unreasonable delays for both the public and RCMP members.

Also in 2020-21, there was a marked increase in the number of RCMP responses to Commission reports. While it is evident that significant efforts are being made to address the backlog of long overdue—some dating back over four years—RCMP responses to CRCC reports, the volume challenged the CRCC's capacity to finalize its public complaint files and process new requests for review files. This impacted our ability to meet our service standards and has resulted in a mounting file backlog. Clearing this backlog remains a priority for the CRCC. I am confident that we will succeed in doing so through the various measures we have implemented, including the triaging of files based on priority and complexity, and the drafting of concise decisions using a plain-language approach.

In spite of the challenge posed by the influx of Commissioner's responses to our reports, the CRCC concluded several significant public interest investigations, including its investigation into the RCMP's handling of the death of Colten Boushie, the RCMP's response to anti-shale gas protests in Kent County, New Brunswick, and the RCMP's involvement in the National Energy Board hearings in British Columbia.

In addition, the CRCC finalized three systemic reviews of RCMP activities: review of the RCMP's policies and procedures regarding strip searches, review of the RCMP's use of crime reduction-type units and review of the RCMP's use of street checks.

For more than a decade, the CRCC has hosted an annual meeting of the heads of provincial police oversight agencies. In 2020-21, the meeting was held virtually and focused on the issue of systemic racism in policing. What emerged from this meeting and others attended by CRCC staff is that it is critical that we aim our public education efforts at restoring trust and confidence in the complaint system. The CRCC needs to focus on outreach to Indigenous and racialized communities in order to identify systemic barriers to accessing the complaint process.

To that end, the CRCC is committed to collecting and reporting on disaggregated race-based data. Without race-based data it is difficult to determine whether certain groups are making use of the complaint process. The collection of this data is critical to our efforts to address barriers to accessing the system. The Commission has partnered with the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency in contracting a race-based data collection study. The study will result in a comprehensive report, complete with a strategy, as well as a series of recommendations for obtaining quality information that leverages effective, accurate and unbiased data-collection methods.

At the close of the fiscal year, the CRCC had, as had other federal agencies, developed longer‑term solutions to deal with the impact of COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions. I am pleased to say that the CRCC responded innovatively and found solutions that focused on ensuring that Canadians were well-served.

The CRCC remains well-positioned to continue working in this "new normal" environment, delivering a robust complaint process that focuses on RCMP accountability.

Michelaine Lahaie
Chairperson

Results at a glance

Despite its small size, the CRCC's investigations and reviews have led to consequential recommendations for changes to the policies, training, and practices of the massive and complex organization that is the RCMP. These recommendations include the following:

• Mental health professionals should lead the response to persons in crisis and wellness checks, and that police involvement be limited to cases where it is necessary based on criminality or a risk to public safety. The CRCC also recommended that the RCMP develop partnerships with provincial and territorial governments to create an appropriate healthcare‑led response to these situations.
• The RCMP should improve its treatment of prisoners in custody, including by offering daily showers to prisoners. The RCMP was receptive to these recommendations and agreed to examine its practices on accepting prisoners for longer-term stays in custody, and to amend its national policies on assessing responsiveness of prisoners and documenting medical observations.
• The RCMP should review its policies concerning the well-being of children whose parents or caregivers have been arrested; a recommendation the RCMP supported.
• Significant changes should be made in the training for RCMP members involved in sexual assault investigations. As a result, the RCMP indicated that a national sexual assault investigation course will be launched in 2021 and that new policy has been developed.

Furthermore, the CRCC's findings and recommendations in high-profile cases have been widely reported on due to their significance. For instance:

• The Commission's report on the RCMP's investigation of the death of Colten Boushie resulted in findings that the RCMP failed to protect a key piece of evidence, and discriminated against his mother when notifying her of his death.
• The CRCC issued 22 reports (on its Chairperson's complaint and 21 individual complaints) about the RCMP's response to anti-shale gas protests in Kent County, New Brunswick. The CRCC's work sought to improve the RCMP's public order policing operations and its response to protests.
• In a report on widespread RCMP surveillance of peaceful anti-pipeline protesters, the CRCC found that most of the RCMP's practices were lawful intelligence-gathering activities, but that the RCMP's policy surrounding the collection, use and retention of personal information was deficient in multiple respects.

The CRCC approached the sensitive issue of strip searches from multiple angles. The CRCC completed a specified activity review, a public interest investigation, and the review of complaints about the forcible removal of detainees' bras. The CRCC concluded that the RCMP had conducted unreasonable strip searches, and made key recommendations for amendments to the RCMP's strip search policy, which were supported by the RCMP.

For more information on the CRCC's plans, priorities, and results achieved, see the "Results: what we achieved" section of this report.

Results: what we achieved

Independent Review of the RCMP

Description: The CRCC'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 CRCC ensures that complaints about the conduct of RCMP members are examined fairly and impartially. Its findings and recommendations help identify and remedy policing problems that stem from the conduct of individual RCMP members or from deficiencies in RCMP policies or practices. The CRCC also conducts reviews of specified RCMP activities, reports to provinces that contract RCMP services, conducts research, program outreach and public education, and provides independent observers to investigations of serious incidents involving RCMP members.

Results:

During this reporting period, the CRCC continued to experience a high demand for the services associated to its core functions—receiving, processing and monitoring public complaints, and independently reviewing the RCMP's handling of public complaints.

This period also coincided with the global COVID-19 pandemic. The CRCC quickly and successfully adapted to shifting operational and strategic realities, and to fulfilling its mandate mostly from a telework posture. For example, the call centre for the intake of complaints promptly pivoted to an online-only operational model in order to continue meeting service standards for the receipt and transmission of complaints.

In 2020-21, 3,361 public complaints were lodged against the RCMP. The CRCC received 94% of these directly. The CRCC met its service standard for processing public complaints and forwarding them to the RCMP in 97% of the cases.

In this same period, the CRCC received 308 new requests for review of the RCMP's disposition of public complaints. This represents a 4% increase over the previous year but also a 32% increase year over year since 2016-17. The CRCC issued 322 complaint review reports. This total included 196 Satisfied Reports, 48 Interim Reports and 78 Final Reports. The RCMP Commissioner accepted 88% of the CRCC's remedial recommendations and 87% of adverse CRCC findings made in its various reports.

The CRCC's service standard for completion of Satisfied and Interim Reports within 120 days of receipt of all relevant materials from the RCMP was achieved in only 63% of cases. While this was an improvement from the previous year's rate of 42%, the CRCC aims to meet this service standard at least 80% of the time. The 30-day standard for delivery of Final Reports was met in 71% of cases.

The CRCC's Final Reports on its specified activity reviews (SARs) of the RCMP's use of strip searches and crime reduction units were completed and made public in 2020. The CRCC's final SAR report on the RCMP's use of street checks was made public in June 2021.

The complexity and scope of the CRCC's public interest investigations and SARs, as well as the limitations placed on some aspects of investigative work by pandemic restrictions, challenged the CRCC's ability to meet the performance indicator targets outlined in the Departmental Results Framework. These targets recognize that to effectively address public concerns about the RCMP, investigations and reviews must be completed in as timely a manner as possible. The CRCC continues to work towards its goal of completing the Interim Report within one year of initiating a public interest investigation or an SAR, provided that RCMP material is supplied in accordance with the operational MOU.

Results achieved

*Note: The Departmental Results Framework is the new approved structure for the CRCC for 2019-20; therefore, actual results for fiscal year 2018-19 are not available.

**Note: Baseline to be established by RCMP Core Survey in 2021. Data for this result are not yet available.

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase^{Footnote i}.

Internal Services

Description

Internal Services are those groups of related activities and resources that the federal government considers to be services in support of programs and/or required to meet corporate obligations of an organization. Internal Services refers to the activities and resources of the 10 distinct service categories that support Program delivery in the organization, regardless of the Internal Services delivery model in a department. The 10 service categories are:

• Acquisition Management Services
• Communication Services
• Financial Management Services
• Human Resources Management Services
• Information Management Services
• Information Technology Services
• Legal Services
• Materiel Management Services
• Management and Oversight Services
• Real Property Management Services

The CRCC ensures that its resources are deployed in the most effective and efficient manner possible. Its operational and administrative structures, tools and processes support the delivery of its priorities. The CRCC continually strives to improve its business processes and enhance its operational efficiency while balancing the associated costs for internal services.

The CRCC's employees are the backbone of its operations. Employee health and well-being are key to the CRCC's success. Initiatives geared towards protecting and improving the health and well-being of employees are an ongoing priority made even more important by the global pandemic. The CRCC's Chairperson has reiterated throughout the pandemic that her priority is the health and safety of the CRCC's employees.

Key results for this reporting period include:

• The implementation of measures to promote employee well-being and ensure occupational health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, in compliance with the guidance of public health and governmental authorities.
• Providing employees with the tools and resources to continue fulfilling the CRCC's mandate while teleworking, including the provision of IT support and the maintenance of the IT infrastructure to ensure optimal efficiency and full compliance with Treasury Board IM and IT standards.
• The continued refinement and integration of records and case management systems, including an extensive information management project to document all key procedures and identify efficiencies throughout the life cycle of a public complaint.

Analysis of trends in spending and human resources

Actual expenditures

Departmental spending trend graph

The following graph presents planned (voted and statutory spending) over time.

The CRCC's actual and planned expenditures have remained stable.

Text Version

Spending Trend (dollars)

	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021	2021-2022	2022-2023	2023-2024
Statutory	875,325	990,288	1,218,281	1,080,512	1,081,393	1,081,393
Voted	9,010,004	9,552,289	10,197,756	9,345,025	9,350,982	9,350,982
Total	9,885,329	10,542,577	11,416,237	10,425,537	10,432,375	10,432,375

*Note: The 2018–19 Independent Review of the RCMP expenditures reflect expenditures reported against the previous Program Alignment Architecture (i.e. Civilian review of RCMP members' conduct in the performance of their duties).

Actual human resources

*Note: The 2018–19 Independent Review of the RCMP full-time equivalents (FTEs) reflect FTEs reported against the previous Program Alignment Architecture (i.e. Civilian review of RCMP members' conduct in the performance of their duties).

The overall increased number of FTEs allocated to the Independent Review of the RCMP over the last three fiscal years reflects the upward trend in the number of public complaints received and the number of requests for review received and conducted.

Expenditures by vote

For information on the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's organizational voted and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada 2019–2020.^{Footnote ii}

Government of Canada spending and activities

Information on the alignment of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's spending with the Government of Canada's spending and activities is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote iii}

Financial statements and financial statements highlights

Financial Statements

The CRCC's financial statements (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2021, are available on the departmental website.^{Footnote iv}

Financial statements highlights

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister[s]: The Honourable Marco E. L. Mendicino

Institutional head: Michelaine Lahaie, Chairperson

Ministerial portfolio: Public Safety

Enabling instrument: Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act^{Footnote v}

Year of incorporation / commencement: 2014

Raison d'être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do

"Raison d'être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do" is available on the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's website.^{Footnote vi}

Operating context

Information on the operating context is available on the CRCC's website.

Reporting framework

The CRCC's Departmental Results Framework and Program Inventory of record for 2020–21 are shown below.

Supporting information on the program inventory

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote vii}

Supplementary information tables

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP does not have any supplementary information tables.

Federal tax expenditures

The tax system can be used to achieve public policy objectives through the application of special measures such as low tax rates, exemptions, deductions, deferrals and credits. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for these measures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures.^{Footnote viii} This report also provides detailed background information on tax expenditures, including descriptions, objectives, historical information and references to related federal spending programs. The tax measures presented in this report are the responsibility of the Minister of Finance.

Organizational contact information

Mail:
P.O. Box 1722, Station B,
Ottawa, ON K1P 0B3

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

Fax:
613-952-8045

E-mail:
Media@crcc-ccetp.gc.ca

Web:
http://www.crcc-ccetp.gc.ca

Appendix: definitions

appropriation (crédit)
Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

budgetary expenditures (dépenses budgétaires)
Operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, organizations or individuals; and payments to Crown corporations.

core responsibility (responsabilité essentielle)
An enduring function or role performed by a department. The intentions of the department with respect to a core responsibility are reflected in one or more related departmental results that the department seeks to contribute to or influence.

Departmental Plan (plan ministériel)
A report on the plans and expected performance of an appropriated department over a 3‑year period. Departmental Plans are usually tabled in Parliament each spring.

departmental priority (priorité)
A plan or project that a department has chosen to focus and report on during the planning period. Priorities represent the things that are most important or what must be done first to support the achievement of the desired departmental results.

departmental result (résultat ministériel)
A consequence or outcome that a department seeks to achieve. A departmental result is often outside departments' immediate control, but it should be influenced by program-level outcomes.

departmental result indicator (indicateur de résultat ministériel)
A quantitative measure of progress on a departmental result.

departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)
A framework that connects the department's core responsibilities to its departmental results and departmental result indicators.

Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)
A report on a department's actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding Departmental Plan.

experimentation (expérimentation)
The conducting of activities that seek to first explore, then test and compare the effects and impacts of policies and interventions in order to inform evidence-based decision-making, and improve outcomes for Canadians, by learning what works, for whom and in what circumstances. Experimentation is related to, but distinct from innovation (the trying of new things), because it involves a rigorous comparison of results. For example, using a new website to communicate with Canadians can be an innovation; systematically testing the new website against existing outreach tools or an old website to see which one leads to more engagement, is experimentation.

full‑time equivalent (équivalent temps plein)
A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full person‑year charge against a departmental budget. For a particular position, the full‑time equivalent figure is the ratio of number of hours the person actually works divided by the standard number of hours set out in the person's collective agreement.

gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) (analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS+])
An analytical process used to assess how diverse groups of women, men and gender-diverse people experience policies, programs and services based on multiple factors including race ethnicity, religion, age, and mental or physical disability.

government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales)
For the purpose of the 2019–20 Departmental Results Report, those high-level themes outlining the government's agenda in the 2019 Speech from the Throne, namely: Fighting climate change; Strengthening the Middle Class; Walking the road of reconciliation; Keeping Canadians safe and healthy; and Positioning Canada for success in an uncertain world.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)
An initiative where two or more federal organizations are given funding to pursue a shared outcome, often linked to a government priority.

non‑budgetary expenditures (dépenses non budgétaires)
Net outlays and receipts related to loans, investments and advances, which change the composition of the financial assets of the Government of Canada.

performance (rendement)
What an organization did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the organization intended to achieve, and how well lessons learned have been identified.

performance indicator (indicateur de rendement)
A qualitative or quantitative means of measuring an output or outcome, with the intention of gauging the performance of an organization, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.

performance reporting (production de rapports sur le rendement)
The process of communicating evidence‑based performance information. Performance reporting supports decision making, accountability and transparency.

plan (plan)
The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how an organization intends to achieve its priorities and associated results. Generally, a plan will explain the logic behind the strategies chosen and tend to focus on actions that lead to the expected result.

planned spending (dépenses prévues)
For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in Main Estimates.

A department is expected to be aware of the authorities that it has sought and received. The determination of planned spending is a departmental responsibility, and departments must be able to defend the expenditure and accrual numbers presented in their Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.

program (programme)
Individual or groups of services, activities or combinations thereof that are managed together within the department and focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.

program inventory (répertoire des programmes)
Identifies all the department's programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department's core responsibilities and results.

result (résultat)
A consequence attributed, in part, to an organization, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single organization, policy, program or initiative; instead they are within the area of the organization's influence.

statutory expenditures (dépenses législatives)
Expenditures that Parliament has approved through legislation other than appropriation acts. The legislation sets out the purpose of the expenditures and the terms and conditions under which they may be made.

target (cible)
A measurable performance or success level that an organization, program or initiative plans to achieve within a specified time period. Targets can be either quantitative or qualitative.

voted expenditures (dépenses votées)
Expenditures that Parliament approves annually through an appropriation act. The vote wording becomes the governing conditions under which these expenditures may be made.

.