Royal Canadian Mounted Police
| Author | Christopher Rootham |
| Pages | 645-677 |
645
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
A. INTRODUCTION
This chapter will address the specific legal rules that apply to members
of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
B. CATEGORIES OF WORKERS IN THE RCMP
There are three categories of workers in the RCMP: regular members,
civilian members, and public service employees.
Regular members of the RCMP are persons who are appointed to
a rank or who are a special constable with the RCMP.1 Regular mem-
bers are, in other words, police ocers. The Royal Canadian Mounted
Police Regulations, 2014 (RCMP Regulations, 2014) lists the thir-
teen ranks of regular members in the RCMP.2 The Royal Canadian
Mounted Police Act (RCMP Act) divides these ranks between “ocers”
(i.e., the Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, Assistant Commis-
sioner, Chief Superintendent, Superintendent, and Inspector)3 and the
remaining ranks, often referred to as non-commissioned ocers (Corps
1 Royal Canadian Mounted Police Regulations, 2014, SOR/2014-281, s 1 [RCMP
Regulations, 2014].
2 Ibid, s 12(1).
3 Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act, RSC 1985, c R-10, ss 5(1) and 6(1) [RCMP
Act].
646 | LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT LAW IN THE FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE
Sergeant-Major, Sergeant- Major, Sta Sergeant-Major, Sta Sergeant,
Sergeant, Corporal, and Constable).4
A civilian member is a member of the RCMP, appointed under the
RCMP Act but who is appointed to a “level” in the RCMP instead of
to a rank.5
Finally, public service employees (also referred to as “civilian
employees” or “civilian sta”)6 are employees appointed under the
Public Service Employment Act who happen to work in the portion of
the federal public administration called the RCMP.
The RCMP is in this way similar to most police forces in that it pro-
vides for the use of workers other than sworn police ocers to perform
duties on behalf of the police force. This concept of using a combination
of sworn police ocers and “civilian” workers dates back to Sir Robert
Peel’s creation of a professional police service in London, England, in
1829.7 More recently, the use of civilian workers in police forces has been
referred to as “civilianization,” defined as “the deployment of non-sworn
personnel in police services to augment and support agency operations.”8
The dierentiation between “civilian members” and “civilian
employees” is less common in police forces. In the RCMP, identical
positions can be categorized as staed by either a civilian member or a
civilian employee. The confusion over the line between civilian mem-
bers and civilian employees has led the RCMP to engage in a project
that it has called the “category of employee” project or, sometimes,
“deeming” since the early 2000s. In the Enhancing Royal Canadian
Mounted Police Accountability Act,9 Parliament permitted the Treasury
Board to publish in the Canada Gazette a date on which every civilian
member is deemed to be a person appointed under the Public Service
4 RCMP Regulations, 2014, s 12(1).
5 Ibid, s 1.
6 RCMP Act, s 10. The section itself uses the term “civilian employee,” but the
heading is “civilian sta.”
7 John Kiedrowski et al, The Civilianization of Police in Canada, Research Report
2015-R024 (Ottawa: Public Safety Canada, 2017) at 1, online (pdf):
www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/2015-r042/2015-r042-en.pdf.
8 John Kiedrowski, Rick Ruddell & Michael Petrunik, “Police Civilianization in
Canada: A Mixed Methods Investigation” (2019) 29:2 Policing and Society 204.
See also Christian Leuprecht, Where to Draw the Blue Line (Ottawa: Macdonald-
Laurier Institute, 2019) at 13, online (pdf): https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/files/pdf/
20191108_MLI_POLICING_Leuprecht_PAPER_FWeb.pdf.
9 Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act, SC 2013, c 18.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police | 647
Employment Act. The amendments to the RCMP Act also clarified that
the Treasury Board has the power to determine the “categories of mem-
bers” in the RCMP.10 The Treasury Board initially set that “deeming”
date on 26 April 2018;11 however, it extended that end date and then
revoked that order before it was implemented,12 and, as of the date of
publication, this “deeming” project remains indefinitely on hold, having
run up against serious opposition from the remaining civilian members
coupled with the practical diculties of changing the pension rights
of civilian members (who are entitled to a pension under the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police Superannuation Act (RCMP Superannuation
Act) instead of the Public Service Superannuation Act).
Finally, members of the RCMP are not treated as “employees” at
common law. Courts have concluded that the “paramilitary” nature of
the RCMP means that RCMP members are suciently dierent from
other types of public servants that they are not considered “employees”
at common law — in other words, Wells v Newfoundland13 has no appli-
cation to them. This means that RCMP members, even before they were
permitted to unionize, could not advance a claim against the Crown
based on breach of contract or other similar common law concepts, such
as a constructive dismissal.14
Civilian members, though, fall under the definition of “employee” in
the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act (FPSLRA).15 This means
that they fall within the bargaining unit most closely associated with the
duties of their position. Thus, for example, civilian members whose pri-
mary role is data entry are included in the bargaining unit representing
clerical workers in the core public administration.16 The Federal Public
Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board (FPSLREB) has con-
sidered this to be a “common sense” approach — in other words, not to
wait for “deeming” to occur but, instead, including civilian members in
the same bargaining unit as other employees performing similar or iden-
tical duties.17 Civilian members still have some dierences from other
10 RCMP Act, s 20.1(a).
11 Canada Gazette, Part I, Vol 151, No 6 — 11 February 2017.
12 Canada Gazette, Part I, Vol 154, No 18 — 2 May 2020.
15 Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act, SC 2003, c 22, s 2 [FPSLRA].
16 Public Service Alliance of Canada v Treasury Board, 2020 FPSLREB 109.
17 Canadian Union of Public Employees v Treasury Board (Royal Canadian Mounted
Police), 2017 FPSLREB 36 at para 92.
To continue reading
Request your trial