RCMP Depot model may be phased out following recommendations made by mass casualty report

A Mass Casualty Commission report that came out on Thursday following a mass shooting in Nova Scotia in 2020 may have a local impact on the RCMP Depot model being phased out.

The Mass Casualty Commission’s final report released in Truro, N.S. on Thursday, is filled with criticisms of the RCMP’s actions before, during, and after the tragedy, a 13-hour killing rampage on April 19 and 20, which took the lives of 22 people.

"The Depot model of police training is inadequate to prepare RCMP members for the complex demands of contemporary policing, and the RCMP’s failure to embrace a research-based approach to program development and police education and its lack of openness to independent research impairs its operational effectiveness," read the report.

The Commission recommended that the Depot model of RCMP training be phased out by 2032, and the RCMP should consult with the Métis and Saskatchewan Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) with respect to how the land and the facility should be used in the future.

Every Mountie in Canada receives basic training at RCMP depot division in Regina.

Premier Scott Moe is concerned about the possible loss of the training academy.

"We need more officers to actually go through Depot so that they can then provide that service of providing safety to Saskatchewan people,” he said on Thursday.

Closure of the depot division would see the loss of hundreds of instructors, staff, and recruit positions in Regina.

“If there are concerns with training you know that is certainly something to look at but I think this seems an extreme measure,” said NDP leader Carla Beck.

Depot division has been the training ground for RCMP recruits since the police force’s establishment in 1885.

With files from CTV News Atlantic Reporter Heidi Petracek