Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Comité permanent des comptes publics

For immediate release

Ottawa, June 17, 2019 -

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is Canada’s largest police force and provides policing services at the federal, provincial and territorial, and municipal levels, as well as within Indigenous communities. Due to the sometimes highly dangerous nature of policing, RCMP members can find themselves in life-threatening situations. However, not all of them had access to the semi-automatic carbine firearms and hard body armour needed to respond to an active shooter situation, according to a report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts (the Committee) presented today by the Honorable Kevin Sorenson, Chair of the Committee.

In the spring of 2019, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) released a performance audit that determined whether the RCMP provided its officers with carbines and hard body armour; this equipment is used to protect officers in active shooter situations. The OAG also looked at officer firearm training and maintenance.

The audit found that not all members had access to the special equipment needed to respond to an active shooter situation. And although the RCMP had enough hard body armour nationwide, its distribution across divisions left some officers without access to it. Furthermore, the RCMP did not have the necessary information at the national level to determine whether detachments across the country had enough protective equipment to meet its obligations under the Canada Labour Code. Lastly, the RCMP was found to be deficient regarding compliance with its policies on both carbine maintenance and the annual recertification on carbine use.

As part of its report, the Committee made six recommendations to help the RCMP address the concerns raised in the audit, to help protect its members and the safety of the Canadian public in highly dangerous situations.