PARLIAMENT HILL, Ottawa—MPs faced off against RCMP boss William Elliot and Public Safety Deputy Minister William Baker in a confrontational committee hearing on Tuesday afternoon.
The central issue of that afternoon’s House of Commons Public Accounts Committee was why, after years of study, the RCMP had yet to set up a management board to address long-standing organizational problems.
Opposition MPs including Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj and NDP MP David Christopherson were outraged that after three reports—one from that committee, another from a task force and a third from the reform council—each of which prioritized that a board of management be struck, that the RCMP had yet to create one.
The issue dates back over three years when the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee first uncovered a multi-million dollar misappropriation of funds from the RCMP pension plan.
That parliamentary investigation, largely pushed by Wrzesnewskyj, resulted in the two deputy commissioners resigning and sparked a formal investigation and review of the RCMP.
Eventually a task force was struck, and later a reform implementation council, and both agreed with the Public Accounts committee that a board of management be created to oversee the operations of the RCMP.
Over three years later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has yet to hear from Deputy Minister William Baker that that is the solution to be implemented.
Baker took some hard shots form MPs as to why he was delaying the recommendation. Elliot said he agreed with previous reports calling for the board of management, but the Deputy said he was waiting for a final RCMP report before making the recommendation. That left Christopherson incredulous.
He called the testimony of the senior public servant and the commissioner a “cute little performance.”
“I can set it to music,” he said.
As the only voice not calling for a board of management, Baker took most of the heat.
“I would like to hear an answer as to how we should accept your answer as anything more than a big song and dance,” said Christopherson.
“What exactly sir, do you not have right now that you need?”
But Wrzesnewskyj suggested Baker was taking shots for someone higher and deflecting criticism that should be directed to the Prime Minister’s Office, which Baker says has the final prerogative over whether a board of management will be struck.
The committee took a pacifying turn when NDP MP Wayne Marston subbed in for Christopherson, who had to step away.
Describing the committee as more intense than he was used to, Marston asked Elliot when that final RCMP report would come. The commissioner said before the end of the month. Turning to Baker, Marston asked how long it would take for him to evaluate the report and decide whether to recommend a board of management. The deputy said a couple more months.
If those timelines hold, a final—apparently crucial—recommendation, the fourth after over three years of investigations, could come this spring and result in one of the biggest organizational changes in the RCMP’s history.
Conservative MPs largely focused their questions on how recent legislation would affect the police force.
In the meantime, RCMP management remains mired in controversy. Deputy commissionor Raf Souccar told the committee on Feb. 8 that Elliott was abusive and disrespectful of staff. Souccar has been on leave of absence since November.
Elliot had announced days earlier he would step down as commissioner.
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