Letter to Commissioner Duheme regarding the issue of Police Services Agreements renegotiations (September 2025)

September 22, 2025 

Commissioner Mike Duheme 
RCMP National Headquarters 
73 Leikin Drive 
Ottawa, Ontario 
K1A 0R2 

Dear Commissioner Duheme, 

I write to you on behalf of the Management Advisory Board (MAB) for the RCMP in line with our statutory mandate (s. 45.18(2) RCMP Act). Specifically, the goal of this letter is to provide you with advice regarding discussions related to the renegotiation of the Police Services Agreements (PSAs) between the Government of Canada (“Canada”) and all provinces and territories save for Quebec and Ontario (“Contract Provinces and Territories”), as well as certain municipalities. 

While you have not solicited this counsel from us, the MAB has discussed this matter on multiple occasions, most recently at our August 2025 quarterly meeting. We believe that the provision of our written advice on this topic is both critical and time-sensitive given the way in which we understand this issue affects planning and operations within the RCMP. 

As we know, the PSAs are set to expire March 31, 2032. While recognizing that this is six-and-a-half years into the future, we are cognizant of the PSAs’ complexity and of the time it will take to review and conclude their renewals, particularly given evolutions in both the nature of policing and of the public safety realities across our country. These factors are further complicated by the rising costs associated with police service delivery, recruitment challenges, and the escalating importance of the RCMP’s federal policing obligations given our present-day national and transnational criminal threat context.  

Taken together, these dynamics stand to complicate the PSAs’ renegotiation. Presently, however, the PSAs’ future is unclear. While the MAB appreciates that this is a matter to be worked out principally at a political level, members have observed that this uncertainty is giving rise to some operational and organizational challenges for the RCMP, which only stand to grow as time passes. Key areas where such challenges present include recruitment and relationships with communities wherein there is speculation, anxiety, or doubt that the RCMP will remain the police of jurisdiction.  

The MAB believes that a clear statement from Canada about PSA renegotiation would serve all parties’ best interests. The MAB recognizes the limited extent to which you and the RCMP have control over this matter. However, even if RCMP is not a formal party to the PSAs, it is well positioned to articulate its needs for clarity around renegotiation in short order.  

Accordingly, our advice to you – which is within the remit of our statutory mandate – is to articulate to Canada, through the Minister of Public Safety (copied hereto), the precise implications and risks for the RCMP, and for community safety more broadly, engendered by ongoing ambiguity on the matter of PSA renegotiation. Canada will benefit from these details, which only the RCMP can provide, which should set out the way in which RCMP operations are adversely impacted by this situation. 

You and your Senior Executive Committee have also expressed to the MAB your vision of how contract policing serves a national interest. The MAB understands this perspective and advises that the RCMP communicate it clearly with Canada. In that regard, it would be beneficial to outline the specific reasons for which the RCMP believes that the PSAs serve national goals that align with the priorities of the federal government, including but not limited to the need for agile cross-border policing services to address emergencies and public safety threats that rise to the level of national interest. 

Engaging with Canada in this way would affirm the critical role that the RCMP can and should play in discussions about the PSAs. In particular, the RCMP can provide the details that different levels of government need to be able to understand the nature, scope, and costs associated with RCMP policing across the country. That information is essential to meaningful and workable PSAs.  

We thank you for considering our input on this important matter for the RCMP and for our country. As always, MAB members would be pleased to discuss this matter with you and members of your Senior Executive Committee. 

Sincerely, 

Professor Angela Campbell 
Chairperson, Management Advisory Board for the RCMP 

CC:  Minister of Public Safety
        Deputy Minister of Public Safety Canada