Soaring cost of terror fight hits RCMP

Mounties forced to reassign hundreds of staff as Ottawa’s share of funding stays static for years

OTTAWA— The RCMP has been forced to shuffle more cash and officers into terrorism investigations as Ottawa’s financial contribution has remained static over the last decade, documents show.

The Mounties diverted $22.9 million from other operations to the Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams (INSETs) in 2013-14. The RCMP’s share of INSET funding has been steadily rising from $717,000 in 2003 to more than $20 million for each of the last three fiscal years.

Meanwhile, the federal government’s contribution to INSETs has remained static at $10 million a year since 2003.

“Given the priority the RCMP has placed on countering the threat posed by high risk travellers and high risk individuals, the RCMP has and will continue to reallocate the necessary resources to the INSETs,” read the documents, tabled in Parliament earlier this year.

“As of Jan. 5, 2015, it is estimated that almost 600 RCMP full-time equivalents have been reallocated from other priority areas (e.g., serious and organized crime, economic crime and other national security files) to INSETs.”

The documents state investigators have been reassigned, on a temporary basis, from “dedicated special investigative teams, surveillance, undercover teams, technical intercepts, analytical support, wiretap warrants and production orders.”

RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson told a Commons committee in March that the force does have sufficient resources.

However, other investigations move to the back burner as a result of the shuffling, Paulson told the MPs.

“Yes, we have enough resources to deal with the threat we’re facing, but . . . we’re taking now a little over 600 resources from other areas of our federal responsibility to transfer those full-time equivalent positions into the counterterrorism world,” Paulson said.

“We have enough people who are working these (terrorism) cases, but they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”

INSETs operate in five major Canadian cities, including Toronto, to collect and share intelligence about threats to national security, and to “enhance investigative capabilities” to carry through investigations to arrests. While led by the RCMP, INSETs include representatives from CSIS, the Canadian Border Services Agency, as well as provincial and municipal police forces.

The Star made multiple interview requests to the RCMP for comment, which weren’t returned. The Star also requested an interview with Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney’s office. In reply, a spokesperson for Blaney said the government has increased security agencies budgets since coming to power — and took a shot at the opposition for voting against Conservative budgets.

“Despite the Liberal and NDP’s votes against these increases, our government will continue to ensure that our national security agencies have the resources they need to keep Canadians safe,” wrote Jean-Christophe de la Rue, in a three-sentence statement.

But Liberal finance critic Ralph Goodale said the RCMP’s numbers contradicts the Conservatives’ “rhetoric” around public safety and national security issues.

“Despite what the government has been saying about the increasing risks to national security and the increasing importance of our security agencies, the official budget has flatlined at $10 million for more than a decade,” Goodale, whose office obtained the documents, said in an interview.

“So the RCMP has had to find the extra $20 (million) to $25 million (a year) from its own internal resources.”

The figures were released as the majority Conservatives continue to push through Bill C-51, the controversial anti-terrorism legislation that gives police-like powers to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. One question that has been largely ignored in the heated debate around C-51 is how CSIS’s new powers will work in areas of the RCMP’s current jurisdiction.