Hon. Catherine S. Callbeck:

Honourable senators, I am pleased to rise to speak at second reading in support of Bill C-18, an Act to amend the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superannuation Act, to validate certain calculations and to amend other Acts.

Senator Martin has summarized this legislation well, so there is no need for me to go into great detail. It is fitting that this bill was first received in the Senate during National Police Week. I support this legislation, and I applaud the government for improving benefits for all the dedicated men and women across the country who keep us and our municipalities safe.

The RCMP Superannuation Act was first amended in 1999, but unfortunately not all issues were addressed at that time. These new changes in Bill C-18 will bring the act in line with the Public Service Pension Plan and many other Canadian plans to allow previous pensionable service to be recognized by the RCMP pension plan.

Presently, 24,000 RCMP members are under the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superannuation Act, while 6,300 of their colleagues fall under the Public Service Superannuation Act, so each group does not have the same pension options. Bill C-18 will change this situation, level the playing field and provide each category of employee with similar pension optioning.

Currently, the RCMP regular and civilian members may buy back or transfer only pensions from the public service, Canadian Forces, Senate, House of Commons, and a provincial or municipal police force that has been taken over by the RCMP. This bill will change that situation. It will allow the RCMP to allow buybacks or to enter into formal agreements with other Canadian pension plans for transfers in and out of, the RCMP pension plan.

Members will have a choice: They will determine what the most advantageous plan is for them. It is hoped that these provisions will assist with the recruitment of new members, especially those with previous police training, while keeping costs low for the RCMP.

I have been told it takes 24 weeks to train a new RCMP cadet, while a person already trained as a police officer only requires 5 weeks of RCMP training, designed to expose them to RCMP policies, procedures, protocol, history of the force and training specific to RCMP duties. As such, the cost of training a new RCMP cadet is approximately $38,000, while the person who has the police experience requires only 5 weeks of training, so the cost is $12,000.

Finally, Bill C-18 includes a number of housekeeping provisions, including methods of calculation that are already being used, but this bill puts them into legislation. There are also some provisions to repeal from the 1999 legislation that were never brought into force and that are now redundant.

This legislation should help the RCMP attract more men and women, both experienced police officers and civilian members, into the force.

As the Liberal member for Scarborough—Guildwood who spoke on Bill C-18 in the other place said:

It is an important bill and is one which rectifies a number of inequities in our treatment of this very important institution. . . .

I urge all senators to vote in favour of this legislation, and I hope that it will be sent to committee as soon as possible.

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