2026 Report of the Auditor General of Canada to the Parliament of Canada
Ottawa, March 23, 2026—A report from Auditor General Karen Hogan tabled today in the House of Commons concludes that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) did not recruit and assign new police officers in a timely and effective way to meet its operational needs.
The audit found that although the RCMP identified recruitment as a top priority since 2018, it did not accurately determine how many police officers it needed to fully staff the force. The RCMP set and reported recruitment targets that fell well short of its actual staffing needs and did not recruit as many officers as planned. Application processing delays were a key factor limiting recruitment. The RCMP missed its target processing time for 97% of applications, making it harder to fill training classes with enough cadets. Some classes were cancelled and fewer cadets were trained than expected.
In 2023, the RCMP introduced the Flexible Posting Plan, which allowed new police officers to choose the province or territory of their first assignment. The plan succeeded in attracting thousands more applicants than anticipated. However, the approach also increased chronic vacancies in some areas. In July 2025, the RCMP began phasing out the use of the plan and returned to assigning new officers according to operational needs.
Police officer shortages in front-line Contract and Indigenous Policing were widespread across Canada. As of September 2025, vacancy rates were above the force’s critical threshold of 7% in 9 of the 11 provinces and territories serviced by the RCMP. These high vacancy rates pose a clear risk to the RCMP’s ability to maintain capacity to deliver policing services. Analysis of RCMP’s data shows that the shortage of police officers has worsened in the last 2 years. As of September 2025, at least 3,400 additional officers were needed to meet operational requirements across the force.
“Chronic shortages of front-line police officers make it difficult to deliver policing services across Canada,” Ms. Hogan said. “The RCMP must determine how many police officers it needs and set recruitment targets to fully staff the force and reduce impacts on existing police officers.”
The 2026 Report of the Auditor General of Canada—Recruiting for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is available on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada website.
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