Transition Binder: Federal Policing Advisory Team Overview

Overview

The Federal Policing Advisory Team's (FPAT) primary responsibility is to develop policy options to support better outcomes on the RCMP Federal Policing (FP) mandate. The work of FPAT is forward leaning, grounded in ensuring Canada is well positioned to respond to the threats of the 21st century with the commensurate institutional structure, resources and skills required. The policy work is complementary to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's (RCMP) Federal Policing Transformation Office (FPTO) which is focused on operational changes to RCMP's FP mandate.

FPAT is comprised of a focused team of 11 FTEs lead by a Senior Assistant Deputy Minister and an Executive Director, with team members bringing in expertise from across government functions, including Treasury Board (Labour relations and IM/IT), Justice, National Security and the RCMP. The FPAT team was formally created through Budget 2024 and has an operating budget (Vote 1) of $9,7M over two years.

Key Files and Responsibilities

Challenges with the RCMPs federal policing mandate have been highlighted by numerous external reviews, with more recent reports – such as the 2023 report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) - calling on the Government to adopt reforms. The complexity and trajectory of the current criminal threat environment, the increasing "borderless" and technologically-driven and enabled nature of such crime, necessitates specialized talent and skills (which are in high demand) as a complement to policing skills. Complex financial structures, coupled with competing priorities of the RCMP has impeded it's ability to tackle today's threats of cyber crime, financial crime and transnational organized crime to name a few. The Prime Minister wrote to the Minister of Public Safety, Intergovernmental Affairs and Democratic Institutions in the winter 2024 to mandate him to transform the RCMP and ensure its is well-positioned and supported to face the unique challenges of our time.

FPAT was stood up within Public Safety Canada in March 2024 to support the Minister with policy advice on a future Federal Policing model that is equipped to meet the needs of the changing threat environment. The FPAT team leverages its multidisciplinary expertise to bring experts from across government to think through issues of institutional structure, resourcing, force generation, training, data and intelligence management and governance. It works in close collaboration with RCMP to define issues and eventually to provide recommendations.

Since its inception, FPAT has made significant progress in the policy development process, and while final advice is still being developed, a proposed approach has now been recommended to the Deputy Minister. Moreover, during the last Federal-Provincial-Territorial meeting of Ministers of Justice and Public Safety, the Minister of Public Safety, Emergency Preparedness and Democratic Institutions announced to his counterparts that we were moving ahead with a policy proposal to improve Federal Policing to better respond to the threat environment and for Federal Policing to be a better partner to other levels of policing.

A summary of the policy work can be found under separate cover.

Key Partners

FPAT works closely with its key partner: the RCMP as well as with the Contract Policing Program within Public Safety and other Government departments. It is supported through formal federal governance structures with central agency representatives at the Assistant Deputy Minister and Deputy Minister level. It also works closely with Provinces and Territories with whom the Federal Government shares policing responsibilities. Targeted engagement with Five Eyes partners has been undertaken to better understand best practices in policing models developed around the world to deter and investigate some of the most complex crimes, including major and organized crime and national security criminality. FPAT has also undertaken targeted discussions with key partners, including the National Police Federation (NPF) and the First Nations Chiefs of Police Association (FNPCA).

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