RCMP commissioner aims to move new applicants to force in 6 months

RCMP commissioner Mike Duheme discusses efforts to speed up the recruitment process and remarks made about foreign interference by India.

In a bid to boost recruitment and increase the number of officers, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme says the national police force is making changes to its training process with the goal of moving new applicants into the force in six months.

“We put mechanisms in place where we are speeding up the whole process and parallel track,” Duheme told CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday.

He said the existing timeline sees people move from successful application to depot in 464 days, which the RCMP has already reduced to 370 days.

“We have a pilot project that at the end of it, we’re comfortable that we can get someone in the door, out to depot, within six months,” Duheme said.

The RCMP has long faced systemic recruitment and retention challenges. In 2023, an independent board that provides oversight of the force concluded the situation was “unsustainable,” and constituted a “crisis.”

The report also stated that the issue presented a risk for national security and the safety of Canadians. The auditor general, meanwhile, is set to release a report on RCMP recruitment Monday. The impetus for the audit, according to the office of the auditor general, was that as of 2023 the force faced a shortage of 2,000 officers.

While Duheme would not say directly when asked where the current staffing shortage stands, he said the auditor general’s conclusions won’t come as a surprise to him or the RCMP.

“The objective is really (that) we want to streamline the process that exists right now and getting people faster in the door now,” Duheme said, when asked about the data from the RCMP department results report showing discrepancy between the number of applications compared to new officers deployed.

“You’re right, we don’t have a recruiting problem,” Duheme said, pointing instead to the “processing mechanism” being “very linear” for applicants to become officers.

The commissioner said he’s “comfortable” stating the RCMP will be able to reduce that process to six months.

The goal is also to further truncate the process for people with some form of law enforcement experience — for example former local police officers or border security officers — but that the force needs to develop a specific new training process for that, he added.

Duheme said he doesn’t have “an exact date” by which the RCMP will conclude its pilot project and get the timeline from application to officer down to six months.

He also said the force is trying to incentivize new officers to move to specific regions that are more challenging to staff, namely Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the North. He said the RCMP is moving to “fast track” those applicants through the process.

You can watch RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme’s full interview on CTV Question Period Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.

With files from CTV News’ Brennan MacDonald