According to one of scenarios, presented in Final report of Capstone seminar project team “Canada in 2020: Identity Politics and Security. Future Scenarios”, the changes in Canada from 2009 to 2020 have focused on four major areas: food safety, immigration and racial tensions, the creation of State police, and the loss of sovereignty over natural resources. Following the “Brave New World Scenario”, by 2017 ethnic tensions and the high unemployment rate will have forced the Government of Canada to launch an overwhelming recruitment campaign aimed at increasing the number of policemen.
This prediction is based on a current initiative on reforming Royal Canadian Mounted Police titled “Force Expansion Initiative”, which has already been launched. The objective of the reforms, stated in the Scenario, seems to be a bit confusing, saying that increased RCMP members is going to reassure foreign investors in security and reliability of investments in Canadian economy. (Capstone seminar project, 2009, 22) To my mind, the number of policemen in the country can hardly become the underlying factor for changing the investment climate.
Going away from predictions, let us address current characteristics of Royal Canadian Mounted Police, related transformation plans and reports on reforms, which are already in progress. RCMP is the Canadian national police service and an agency of the Ministry of Public Safety Canada. Uniqueness of RCMP lies in the fact that it s a national, federal, provincial and municipal policing body. North-West Mounted Police, which was a predecessor of RCMP was established in the second half of 19th century in response to the need for a national police force to implement the law in Canada’s newly acquired Western states. Since then the RCMP has evolved into a world-renowned organization of more than 28,000 people. Today’s RCMP’s activities embrace a wide range of operations, which include organized crime, terrorism, illicit drugs, economic crimes and offences, which threaten the integrity of borders on Canada.
Recent period in RCMP’s development is characterized by the fact that a lot of both internal and external studies, aimed at working out recommendations for improving its organization and functioning arte being published. It is worth mentioning that aforementioned studies concentrate rather on enhancing the quality of RCMP’s performance management than increasing the number of members. For instance, the Government-appointed Task Force on Governance and Cultural Change in the RCMP produced a report, which included 49 recommendations to reform such areas of RCMP’s organization and performance as organizational structure, control and accountability, leadership and human resource management. (Government of Canada 2007) Taking into account recommendations worked out by the Task Force, RCMP has elaborated on its internal Transformation Plan.
According to a Transformation Plan in Support of the RCMP Change Process, the vision, which is driver for change, lies in transforming RCMP into “an adaptive, accountable, trusted organization of fully engaged employees demonstrating outstanding leadership and providing world-class police services”. (RCMP, 2008, 1)Analysis of external and internal studies let the RCMP management identify main areas that underlie majority …