OTTAWA, February 23, 2021 — The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) today announces a review of the federal policing mandate of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). This review will be conducted over the next year and concluded in 2022.
The RCMP’s federal policing mandate covers a range of activities, including protective policing, international policing, national security investigations, the investigation of sophisticated crime, including cybercrime, organized crime and transnational crime, and specialized policing services. The Committee’s review is intended to establish a baseline knowledge of this broad and complex mandate. It will examine federal policing programs, activities and authorities; the capabilities and results of those programs and activities; and the roles played by the RCMP’s domestic and international partners.
“While a number of reports over the last five years by prominent Canadians and other review bodies have highlighted significant challenges with the RCMP as an integrated organization, none have specifically focused on the RCMP’s critical and diverse mandate in federal policing,” said the Chair of NSICOP, the Hon. David McGuinty. “I expect the Committee’s review to highlight areas where the RCMP could strengthen its federal policing activities and to help to inform the public discussion around the RCMP’s unique role in this area.”
On the basis of its review, the Committee may make findings and recommendations relating to the legislative, regulatory, policy, administrative or financial aspects of the RCMP’s federal policing mandate.
NSICOP was established under the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Act on June 22, 2017. It may review:
NSICOP members hold the highest level of security clearance, are bound by the Security of Information Act and meet in private.
